China yesterday recalled its ambassador to Lithuania to protest the European nation’s move to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy, sending a rare warning to others that might seek more formal ties with Taipei.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement that it had recalled Ambassador Shen Zhifei (申知非) from Vilnius and demanded that Lithuania’s envoy leave Beijing.
The ministry blamed the move on the Baltic state’s decision to allow Taipei to open a representative office under the name “Taiwan,” something that “severely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Photo: AFP
“If Lithuania dares to take one more step, there will be a cutting-off of official ties,” said Wang Yiwei (王義桅), director of Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs and a former Chinese diplomat. “This is also a warning to other EU countries not to follow Lithuania’s suit.”
China has for decades required states to renounce ties with Taipei as a condition for establishing relations — under what it calls the “one China” principle — leaving Taiwan with only 15 UN-recognized diplomatic partners.
Countries including the US and Japan have stepped up support for Taiwan amid a campaign by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to pressure Taipei to accept Beijing’s “one China” framework for ties.
While China lodges frequent protests over diplomatic issues, it rarely recalls its ambassadors. Beijing withdrew its envoy from the US in 1995 after Washington granted a visa to then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), in one of the two rivals’ most serious dust-ups over Taiwan.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “respects the principle of one China” and regretted Beijing’s decision.
Still, Lithuania is “determined to develop mutually beneficial relations with Taiwan, just as many other countries in the European Union and the rest of the world,” it said.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement that Taiwan has noted China’s recall of its ambassador in Lithuania.
Lithuania’s steadfast commitment to the principles of freedom and democracy is worthy of admiration, she said, adding that the Baltic state is a like-minded friend and partner with which Taiwan would continuously seek to strengthen exchanges in various fields.
“In opening representative offices in our two countries, Taiwan and Lithuania aim to engage in mutually beneficial cooperation in the areas of the economy, technology, education and culture,” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) admonished China for pressuring Taiwan and countries friendly toward it.
“China ignores the existence of Taiwan, and fabricates lies that it spreads throughout the world,” he said. “We thank Lithuania for being upright and brave, and for cherishing the friendship it has with us.”
“China acts like a hoodlum, and it simply cannot see what is good about Taiwan,” DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said.
“Lithuanian officials should also be invited to Taiwan for talks on direct flights between Taipei and Vilnius,” he said. “We must stand up to Chinese bullying and repay Lithuania’s kindness with real action.”
The EU’s delegation in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on China’s move.
Earlier this year, Lithuania pulled out of the 17+1 cooperation mechanism, which was set up by China to promote trade and dialogue between China and central and eastern European countries.
Lithuania‘s government, which took power eight months ago, has also angered China by announcing plans to give visas to Hong Kong residents facing persecution.
Lithuania has limited economic exposure in a dispute with China, with US$1.8 billion in total trade last year. China was Lithuania’s 12th-largest trading partner.
Additional reporting by Chien Hui-ju
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has