Straight News: What do you think of US Secretary of State Blinken's phone call with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, stressing that they will stand up for Lithuania in the face of China's escalating economic pressure?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: US Secretary of State Blinken personally spoke to the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to persuade these countries to support Lithuania, which means that in the all-round game of Lithuania's obstinate agreement to set up a so-called "Taiwan representative office", not only Lithuania has been unable to withstand the pressure, but even the United States has felt powerless.
Because in the course of this game, since the Taiwan issue concerns China's core national interests, China will certainly rely on its national strength or even at all costs to defend national sovereignty and safeguard the "one China" principle. On the contrary, although the United States has given Lithuania $600 million in credit support in order to reward Lithuania, in comparison, the United States cannot afford to do whatever it takes to support Lithuania, and even every dollar used by the Biden administration must be approved by the US Congress. Similarly, the United States cannot do this, and even less so in the European Union, which is currently in a state of fragmentation of 27 countries. Therefore, in the process of the game between China and the United States and Europe around whether to oppose Lithuania or support Lithuania, although the United States and Europe have pulled out the ideological tone very high, in fact, the advantages of potential and force are not on their side.
In my personal opinion, Lithuania cannot withstand economic pressure, and Taiwan, which is dependent on Chinese mainland, is even more unable to resist. Therefore, such a situation reminds us of a sentence said by Russian President Putin, that is, "with China's current strength, they do not need to use force, and they can solve the Taiwan issue by relying only on economic means." In my opinion, this sentence is worth savoring both by the Tsai Ing-wen authorities and by our compatriots Chinese mainland. We must not be confused by the current chaotic situation in the Taiwan Strait, thinking that in the face of the current situation we have no other way out but military unification, in fact, we must not be arrogant and self-effacing, because we still have more cards in our hands.
Straight News: We have seen that in recent times, not only has the Lithuanian government's public opinion support rate fallen to an all-time low, but lithuanian opposition parties have also published articles on social media, fiercely criticizing the current government's China policy. What do you think about that?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think that the Lithuanian government's public opinion support has dropped to an all-time low, which is not necessarily directly related to the Lithuanian government's insistence on agreeing to set up a so-called "Taiwan representative office.", but the voices in Lithuania that have begun to fiercely criticize the Taiwan policy of the Lithuanian government have actually given us a very useful enlightenment in dealing with the current situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Because the Western system and system are not monolithic, and they also have irreconcilable contradictions within them, we can completely use the internal contradictions between the Western system and the system to counter some Western countries on the Taiwan issue.
The inherent contradictions of these Western countries' systems and systems include at least several levels, one is that although the United States and the EU seem to be allies, there will also be conflicts of national interests between them, which we can use; second, not only is the EU not monolithic, but there are also conflicts of interest and contradictions between the big and small countries in the EU in the relationship with China, especially the consensus system adopted when making decisions within the EU, which means that Third, all Western countries, whether large or small, even the United States, are facing political and economic contradictions when dealing with China, that is, the contradiction between obsessive ideology and the pursuit of real economic interests, which provides an opportunity for China to use the economic card to counter the ideological card of these countries; fourth, These countries are generally faced with the problem of confrontation between the executive and legislative powers, between the ruling party and the opposition party, and even between the government and the will of the people, which provides an opportunity for us to use the government of these countries to contain the National Assembly or the Congress to contain the government, the opposition party to contain the ruling party, and the public opinion to contain the government, to prevent them from taking the extreme line of china and Taiwan policy.
In a word, in solving these thorny problems, as long as the spirit does not slip, there are always more ways than difficulties. As long as we use our brains and use clever strength and soft power, we can always find a way to solve the dilemma.
Author: Liu Heping, special commentator of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Live Broadcasting, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan"