China has rejected concerns over the safety of Lithuanian diplomats in the Asian country, weeks after Beijing downgraded relations with Lithuania in protest at the Baltic state’s decision to allow Chinese Taipei to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius.
China has sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, and under the “One China” policy, almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty, meaning that they should not have direct diplomatic contact with the self-proclaimed government in Taipei.
However, Taipei in July announced that it planned to open a diplomatic outpost under the name of “Taiwan” in Lithuania, the first time the self-ruled island uses that name for one of its offices in Europe, as normally only “Taipei” is used.
The provocative move prompted Beijing in August to call on Vilnius to withdraw its ambassador from China, which also said it would recall its envoy from the Baltic state. Beijing, at the time, lambasted Vilnius for the provocative decision, which “brazenly violates the spirit of the communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania and severely undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
On Wednesday, Vilnius said that it had summoned its top diplomat back from China for “consultations” and that its embassy would operate remotely for the time being.
In the same day, a group of 19 people comprising embassy personnel and dependents left China for Paris, according to a report by Reuters. The news agency further cited Hsiao Bi-Khim, Taipei’s representative in the United States, as saying that they had been subjected to “intimidation.”
“It is unfortunate that their diplomats are being intimidated,” the envoy claimed.
On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a regular daily briefing that claims that Lithuanian diplomats feared for their personal safety, or that China forbade its citizens from working at the representative office, were “purely fictitious.”
“The Lithuanian side also never raised the issue of personal safety to China,” the Chinese official further said. “If the Lithuanian side does not face reality, if it does not reflect and correct mistakes but instead shirks its own responsibility, then it will only challenge bilateral relations even more.”
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Chinese Taipei’s secessionist president Tsai Ing-wen has independence aspirations and views the island as a “sovereign state,” rejecting the One China principle. The US, though professing abidance by the principle, has long courted Taipei and sold weapons to the self-governed island.
China has been flying fighter jets close to Chinese Taipei recently while the US has reportedly had troops deployed in the territory for the past year for alleged training purposes.
