Lithuania Gains Support in Dispute With China

washington — 

Facing increasing pressure from China, Lithuania has been gaining support this week in a standoff that began over trade and was elevated when the small Baltic nation became the first European Union member to allow Taiwan to use its name on a de facto embassy.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis met on Wednesday and agreed to step up cooperation on challenges rising from China’s pressure on both countries. Landsbergis traveled to Canberra to open Vilnius’ first embassy in Australia.

Payne said it’s important for like-minded countries to work together to maintain an international rules-based order. “We are sending the strongest possible message about our rejection of coercion and our rejection of authoritarianism,” she said.

That meeting came after Britain announced on Monday that it would be joining an EU case against China over Beijing’s trade curbs on Lithuania. The EU launched a challenge at the World Trade Organization late last month, accusing China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania.

“We support our allies, Lithuania & the EU, in standing against China’s use of coercive trading practices,” Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Britain’s international trade secretary, said on Twitter.

The dispute began early in 2021, when Lithuania’s talks with China about export permits for feed, nonanimal products and edible offal began faltering, according to The Baltic Times. By August, Beijing had stopped approving new permits for Lithuanian food exports to China and halted direct freight train service to Lithuania.

On November 18, Lithuanian authorities allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Taipei,” the term preferred by Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its territory.

Since then, China has recalled its ambassador from Vilnius while ordering Lithuania’s ambassador to leave Beijing, and it has implemented an embargo against Lithuania, boycotting all its exports as well as any EU products that use Lithuanian-made components.

By December 9, China was “sending messages to multinationals that if they use parts and supplies from Lithuania, they will no longer be allowed to sell to the Chinese market or get supplies there,” according to Mantas Adomenas, Lithuania’s vice minister for foreign affairs.

‘Wake-up call’

Jonathan Hackenbroich, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force for Strengthening Europe Against Economic Coercion, called China’s move “a wake-up call.”

“Imagine China has disputes with Lithuania, and then it starts telling German, French and Swedish companies to stop trading with Lithuania. Then you could easily imagine if China had a dispute with Taiwan or another country, it could also start telling German, French or Swedish companies to stop trading with that country,” Hackenbroich told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview. “Now Beijing has done it once. You can’t exclude the possibility that it will happen in the future.”

The European Commission in December proposed legislation to create an EU anti-coercion instrument, with the goal of strengthening the protection of its members against economic coercion. It’s the first legal framework allowing EU members to act against economic coercion by nonmember states.

“You will have the full power of the EU market in response to grave acts of economic coercion,” Hackenbroich said.

At a daily press briefing Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China was adhering to WTO rules in its dealings with Lithuania.

“The ins and outs of the fraught China-Lithuania relations are very clear,” he said. “China has responded properly in defense of its legitimate rights and interests and international justice, which is completely legitimate and lawful. China always follows WTO rules.

“The so-called ‘coercion’ of China against Lithuania is purely made out of thin air,” Zhao said. He added that Lithuania “should stop confounding right with wrong and maliciously hyping things up, let alone trying to rope other countries in to gang up on China.”

Optimism on anti-coercion measure

Matas Maldeikis, a member of the Lithuanian Parliament, told VOA Mandarin that France, which holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union from January to June this year, has promised to accelerate adoption of the anti-coercion instrument.

“Unfortunately, as we have to negotiate between the 27 very different countries, it takes time to come to decisions. Good news is many understand the necessity of such an instrument and the importance of unity within the EU,” he told VOA in an email.

Andrius Kubilius, a member of the European Parliament and former prime minister of Lithuania, told CNN in January that he didn’t expect bigger EU countries to take it upon themselves to stand up to China. But, he added, “maybe from Lithuania it will spread to others, and in time, Europe will stand united against a country that doesn’t meet our standards.”

“China needs to learn lessons, because until now, they have been allowed to behave in a way that doesn’t adhere to our values and rules, simply because they were so wealthy,” he told CNN.

Kubilius told VOA in an email that EU members could adopt several actions to help counter economic coercion, including taking a “unified stance,” settling disputes in the WTO and providing EU financial support for businesses that suffer losses.

Lithuania Looks to US for Help Against China, Russia

As Russia builds up forces along Ukraine’s borders and Chinese officials seek to punish Lithuania for opening a door to Taiwan, the heads of the Lithuanian parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committees called on their allies in Washington for support.

Their message was clear: Lithuania is holding the line against two of America’s most powerful challengers and that U.S. support is critical to its success in defending against aggression from Moscow and Beijing.

“This week in Washington, we’re here to address two issues. One is security, and it’s about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic region. The other one is China. Those are trade issues, but not only trade issues. It’s about our security as well,” Laima Liucija Andrikiene, chair of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told VOA as she and her colleagues wrapped up a weeklong trip to Washington on Feb. 3.

The delegation was made up of four lawmakers in charge of national security, defense and foreign affairs committees in the Lithuanian parliament, known as the Seimas. They met members of both the Senate and House Baltic caucuses, as well as Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Republican Senator James E. Risch, the chairman and ranking senior minority member of U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, among others.

“The biggest thing happening right now is Russian buildup around Ukraine, it creates so-called strategic uncertainty, which means different scenarios are possible,” said Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee. Whether through negotiations or the “military scenario,” Russia’s goals are the same, he said.

He said Moscow wants not only to “have the veto right” to prevent any NATO enlargement to the east, but also to “create a two- or three-tiered NATO, with second-class membership for the Baltic states,” meaning Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would remain in NATO formally but “without military exercises in our region, without NATO deployment in our region.”

“We are against that, we reject that, it’s very good for the U.S. and NATO to respond and say they reject this as well,” he said.

Kasciunas also voiced concern about Belarus, his country’s neighbor to the east, which he said has “lost its sovereignty and neutrality” since President Alexander Lukashenko turned to Moscow for help when threatened by mass protests over a disputed 2020 election.

Lithuania has since become a safe haven for activists fleeing Belarus, including exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her children.

Russia’s deployment of troops into Belarus as part of a buildup for a potential invasion of Ukraine demonstrates how quickly Lithuania — a NATO member state — could be subjected to similar pressure, Kasciunas said. “If two years ago Lukashenko could have 48 hours neutrality, now he [presents] zero neutrality.”

Lithuania this week welcomed decisions made by Germany and the Netherlands to increase the number of troops deployed to Lithuania. U.S. help is also critical, Kasciunas said. He described what this help could look like.

“We have now a rotating military battalion, but we need more combat-ready, more integrated into our national system,” he said. Even more importantly, “no gaps” between rotations, he said.

Until now, U.S. troop rotations into Lithuania have sometimes been separated by weeks or even months, an official at the Lithuanian Embassy told VOA.

Dovile Sakaliene, another National Security and Defense Committee member who was not part of the delegation, said she agrees. “Deterrence is much cheaper than defense,” she said in a phone interview from Lithuania.

“We feel like West Berlin in Cold War times,” Kasciunas said. “We have only a small corridor, the Suwalki Gap, which links us Baltic states with the rest of the NATO system via Poland. Just like NATO defended and deterred the Soviets in West Berlin, we’re also asking NATO to deter possible attacks in the Baltics.”

Kasciunas also recounted some of the decisions made during what he called “a year of anti-communism fight” that angered Beijing, beginning with a strong investment screening mechanism aimed at protecting Lithuania’s strategic assets and ending with an agreement to let Taiwan establish a representative office using the name Taiwan.

“They decided to punish us, not only to punish us but also to prevent others from following suit,” Kasciunas said.

“They not only banned our exports to China, but also Chinese export to Lithuania, which created a lot of problems for companies that depended on Chinese import for their production. And they also harassed international companies, which in their supply chain had some small Lithuanian element, especially German companies.

“They want to make Lithuania a noncredible financial partner, not attractive to foreign direct investment,” he said.

Andrikiene, the Foreign Affairs Committee chair, pointed out that Lithuania became an independent state after 50 years of Soviet occupation 32 years ago. “Without allies, like-minded countries, other democracies from whichever region of the world, we simply wouldn’t have survived, let alone become a successful European Union and NATO member state,” she said.

The presence and concrete support of worldwide democracies is critical, the Lithuanian lawmakers say, if they are to rally their own population and stand up to China’s attempts to isolate the country and harm its image.

One way the U.S. could help is by connecting their northeastern European state with countries providing market access in the Asia-Pacific region, Andrikiene said.

“The United States maintains a dialogue with the Indo-Pacific region, and we were asking for their expertise, their experience and their support for Lithuania. That would be a very concrete assistance and support in addition to political support and resolutions,” she said.

Kori Schake, a senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, told VOA in an exchange of emails that China “is draconian in response to small states’ bravery, fearing that if they aren’t made examples of, others will also gain the courage to resist China’s intimidation.”

Ensuring Lithuania’s success, she said, “is the right response” because it demonstrates solidarity with frontline states that dare to question and spotlight Chinese strategic intentions and practices.

“Same for Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and other countries China is trying to intimidate,” she said.

US Counters China's 'Economic Coercion' Against Lithuania in Taiwan Dispute

london — 

A senior U.S. delegation visited Lithuania this week in a show of support for the Baltic state in its growing dispute with China involving Taiwan.

Beijing effectively blocked imports of Lithuanian goods last month after Taiwan was allowed to open a representative office in the capital, Vilnius. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory. The dispute has rapidly escalated into a trade tussle between the West and Beijing.

Jose W. Fernandez, undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, met Lithuanian government ministers in a visit described by the U.S. State Department as showing “continuing strong support for Lithuania in the face of political pressure and economic coercion from the People’s Republic of China.” The two sides discussed the implementation of a $600 million agreement on boosting trade.

Lithuania welcomed the intervention. “We permanently feel U.S. strong political and practical support in our dispute with China over its systemic violations of international trade rules,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release.

Taiwan

The dispute began in 2020 when Lithuania’s new government pledged to support what it called “freedom fighters” in Taiwan and criticized Beijing’s human rights record in Hong Kong and Tibet.

In May 2021, Lithuanian lawmakers approved a resolution that described China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority as “genocide.” China has rejected such accusations.

In November of last year, Taiwan officially opened the representative office in Vilnius. Its director, Eric Huang, said the goal was the “strengthening of [the] bilateral relationship comprehensively between Taiwan and Lithuania.”

Lithuania said the opening did not affect its policy toward China or imply any official recognition of Taiwan as independent from Beijing. The move, however, stoked fury in Beijing.

“From the perspective of Beijing, it’s crossing a line, a real red line on how they approach Taiwan. And this is what led later to Beijing downgrading its embassy in Lithuania,” Grzegorz Stec of the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies said in a recent interview with VOA.

Import blockade

In December, China effectively blocked Lithuanian imports by delisting it as a country of origin, meaning goods can’t clear Chinese customs, while pressing multinational businesses to sever ties with the Baltic country.

“And that works not only in some cases for goods that are produced in Lithuania but also goods that include in their supply chain components produced in Lithuania. Also, the European exports that have been transited through Lithuanian ports, they have also been affected,” Stec said.

FILE – EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis speaks during a press conference in Brussels, on Dec. 7, 2021.

EU challenge

The European Union accuses China of threatening the integrity of its single market and has launched a challenge at the World Trade Organization.

“We are stepping forward to defend the EU’s rights,” EU Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters January 27.

“Since December 1, Chinese customs are banning Lithuanian imports from the Chinese market. … Chinese companies are canceling orders from Lithuania. China is also cutting its exports to Lithuania. Moreover, China is putting pressure on international companies to abandon the use of Lithuanian components in their production,” Dombrovskis said.

It likely will take years for the WTO challenge to be resolved. In the meantime, the EU is working on legal instruments to counter coercive practices.

“This could include really targeting or restricting access for companies from a specific country from the single market. Right now, we don’t really have a clear instrument for doing that,” Stec told VOA.

Lithuanian lifeline

The Taiwan government has offered Lithuania a $1 billion credit program and a separate $200 million fund to boost trade. Lithuania has donated hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan.

The United States has also stepped in to make up the shortfall caused by China’s blockade. The U.S. Export-Import Bank signed a $600 million export credit agreement with Lithuania, focusing on manufacturing, business services and renewable energy.

But it’s not just about money, Stec said. “Symbolic involvement [by the U.S.] of course supports Lithuania by showing that it’s not isolated in its moves. At the same time, it also makes it harder to unravel the situation because it once again puts it in the spotlight.”

U.S. officials also held talks in Brussels on joint measures to tackle economic coercion.

FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian gestures as he speaks during a daily briefing at his ministry in Beijing, Feb. 24, 2020.

‘Betrayal’

China, meanwhile, accuses Lithuania of “betrayal.”

“The issue between China and Lithuania is a bilateral issue between China and Lithuania, not between China and Europe. We urge Lithuania to correct its mistakes immediately, and not act as a pawn of Taiwan independence separatist and anti-China forces. We also remind the EU to distinguish right from wrong and be alert to Lithuania’s attempts to hijack China-EU relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters January 27.

US Counters China’s ‘Economic Coercion’ Against Lithuania Over Taiwan Dispute

A U.S. delegation visited Lithuania this week to show support for the Baltic state in its growing dispute with China over Taiwan. Beijing has blocked imports of Lithuanian goods, and as Henry Ridgwell reports, it has escalated into a trade tussle.
Producer: Mary Cieslak. Camera: Henry Ridgwell.

European Union Rallies Behind Lithuania in Trade Fight with China

By filing a formal complaint against China at the World Trade Organization this week, the European Union is throwing its weight into support for member state Lithuania in what is being cast as a test of the EU’s willingness to defend the interests of even its smallest members in the face of Chinese power and aggression.

The complaint, which seeks a ruling from the WTO, alleges that China has violated the trade body’s rules by carrying out against Lithuania coercive actions that also interfered with the EU’s all-member-inclusive single market and supply chain.

China’s actions are widely seen as intending to punish the Baltic country of 2.8 million people for leaving the 17+1, a regional group Beijing established, and agreeing to host in its capital a Taiwanese representative office bearing the name “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania” rather than “Taipei Representative Office,” as such offices are titled elsewhere.

“Over the past weeks, the European Commission has built up evidence of … a refusal to clear Lithuanian goods through customs, rejection of import applications from Lithuania, and pressuring EU companies operating out of other EU Member States to remove Lithuanian inputs from their supply chains when exporting to China,” the EU said in a statement Thursday, adding that China’s actions “appear to be discriminatory and illegal under WTO rules.”

Before the announcement, a European Commission spokesperson in Brussels told VOA, “As we have consistently stressed, the EU will stand up against all types of political pressure and coercive measures applied against any Member State. We stand by Lithuania. Lithuanian exports are EU exports.”

Jonathan Hackenbroich, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA that while some within the EU initially questioned the extent to which Lithuania had consulted other member states prior to announcing its decisions concerning China and Taiwan, those concerns paled compared with the seriousness of the threat China’s actions posed to the political and economic integrity of the 27-member bloc.

If China’s action is left unchallenged, EU member states and businesses will end up losing more of their freedom, Hackenbroich warned in a recent essay, Coercion With Chinese Characteristics: How Europe Should Respond to Interference in Its Internal Trade.

The essay states that while China’s aggressive thinking and deeds “should be a source of great worry for European businesses and governments,” the EU must urgently do more to promptly identify and effectively counter China’s coercive methods against nations that defy its wishes.

“Look, everyone can understand this is a test,” said Benjamin Haddad, senior director of the Europe Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. “This is a test of whether Europeans will break off their solidarity with one of their smaller members in exchange of economic interests.”

Haddad told VOA that he wouldn’t be surprised if the EU came up with strong measures in support of Lithuania. “Because I think there’s just this feeling that Lithuania should not be left on its own.”

Besides, doing so is consistent with the vision for Europe spelled out by French President Emmanuel Macron. France took over the six-month EU presidency Jan. 1. “If you talk about sovereignty, or if you talk about strategic autonomy, that means defending all of the EU members against external challenges and threats. Clearly we have China being aggressive against one of the smaller (EU) members.”

French and EU policymakers are no doubt mindful of “a broader shift in European mindsets about China,” Haddad said.

“Three years ago, the EU released a paper saying China is a trade partner, an economic competitor but also a systemic rival; I think now you see more and more of the systemic rival piece take precedence.”

The battle between Beijing and Vilnius has been closely watched around the world. Analysts in Poland recently wrote that China’s new, more aggressive tactics are also meant to intimidate other EU countries, mainly those in central Europe, “where the economic cooperation model with China is similar to Lithuania’s.”

That model involves only minor direct sales to China but significant indirect export through the supply chains of Western European companies. China is applying its punitive measures to products containing any Lithuanian-made content, in effect issuing what analysts describe as secondary sanctions that also harm businesses and industries from third countries, including other nations in the EU.

Lithuania’s direct exports to China constitute only 1% of its total exports, but its industry and manufacturing are closely linked with German and other multinational corporations that Beijing is pressuring to stop sourcing from Lithuania.

Given Germany’s status as an economic powerhouse in the EU, the reaction of the German businesses and government to China’s pressure is considered crucial.

Observers noticed that the Federation of German Industries, or BDI, supported the EU’s WTO filing, saying the union needs to take decisive measures.

New message from Berlin

Addressing an audience gathered at the Mercator Institute to discuss its China 2022 forecast, Tobias Lindner, a German deputy foreign minister, described the disagreements with China as touching “the core of European values and interests — not addressing this now will cost us dearly in the long run.”

“We will continue to seek cooperation between China and the EU and Germany,” Lindner said. “However, the partnership that we seek will be looked at strategically: Does it conform with our values? Is it in our interest?”

Lithuania’s top economic official said her government hasn’t ruled out a diplomatic solution, while also underscoring the EU’s role going forward. “If the EU talks in one voice, then there is always a solution,” Ausrine Armonaite told Politico.

“When it comes to a situation that Lithuania is in, today it’s Lithuania; day after tomorrow it may be any other European countries,” she said.

There are signs that mutual support and solidarity are taking root among EU nations as the bloc and member states individually face challenges from multiple directions.

“The fact that we’re a member of the European Union, it means we have to defend other member states of the EU should they feel they’re being coerced by third parties,” Anze Logar, Slovenian foreign minister, told VOA in an interview last month.

In September, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa wrote a letter to fellow EU member states urging them to support Lithuania as the latter started to receive punitive blows from Beijing.

Asked whether Slovenia came under fire from Beijing because of the letter, Logar said it wouldn’t have mattered.

“It’s a matter of principle,” he said. “If you’re a member of a club, you have to defend your partners in this club, because we expect we’ll be defended when somebody from outside attacks us, that other member states will come to our own defense.”

Slovenia may need help from the EU club quite soon. Slovenian businesses reported their contracts were being canceled by China after Jansa described the tactics China deployed against Lithuania as “terrifying” and said his government is in talks with Taiwan to establish representative offices.

On Thursday, following the EU’s WTO filing announcement, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office announced that “the United States will request to join these @WTO consultations in solidarity with Lithuania and the European Union.”

The State Department announced Friday that Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose Fernandez will travel to Vilnius on Sunday, followed by a stop in Brussels.

Washington’s “continuing strong support for Lithuania in the face of political pressure and economic coercion from the People’s Republic of China” is on the agenda of discussions between Fernandez and his Lithuanian counterparts, the State Department said. Fernandez will also be discussing measures to counter economic coercion with EU officials in Brussels.

Lithuania, Latvia welcome RFE/RL’s Jamie Fly— and “Mr. Landsbergis” – USAGM

Lithuania, Latvia welcome RFE/RL’s Jamie Fly— and “Mr. Landsbergis”

January 14, 2022

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — As political turmoil and targeted intimidation campaigns continue to impact RFE/RL’s journalists and their ability to operate in the wider region, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Jamie Fly visited Lithuania and Latvia this week-–two countries that have for decades been enthusiastic consumers of RFE/RL programming. In both countries, Fly thanked officials for their support for the work of RFE/RL and its journalists and emphasized the vital role of free and independent media during his meetings with them and with local journalists and activists.

In Lithuania, Fly met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Arnoldas Pranckevicius, Speaker of the Seimas (parliament) Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, and Seimas member Zygimantas Pavilionis, as well as senior officials and advisors at the Office of the Government and the Office of the President. He also met with former Lithuanian foreign and defense minister Linas Linkevicius, and Belarus’ exiled democratic leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

In Latvia, Fly had meetings with advisors to the Prime Minister, President, and Ministry of Defense, Rihards Kols, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima (parliament); and Latvia‘s National Electronic Mass Media Council. He also met with representatives of Latvian civil society working to counter disinformation.

During his meetings, Fly described the difficult conditions under which RFE/RL journalists have been operating and stressed the important role that RFE/RL’s journalism plays in supporting democracy across the wider region. He highlighted the urgent need to defend and model media freedom, as regional governments seek to suppress it and continue to target journalists, who are simply seeking to report the facts as they unfold. Interlocutors expressed their strong support for RFE/RL’s work and explored opportunities for further cooperation.

Fly also attended the Lithuanian premiere of Mr. Landsbergis, a documentary about Lithuania’s struggle to restore its independence. The film, which was commissioned by RFE/RL’s Current Time digital network, won the Best Film award at the 34th annual International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November 2021. Speaking at the event, which marked the 31st anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Vilnius, Fly congratulated director Sergei Loznitsa for his vision and his determination to bring the story to the attention of the world, noting the relevance of the film’s message as Russia and China today threaten democracies and attempt to distort the past.

About RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.