Lithuania, a small Baltic country, has frequently come out of the circle with crazy "anti-Russia and containment of China" remarks in recent years, which from time to time have attracted the attention of global public opinion and have great controversy. But in fact, Lithuania had good relations with China many years ago, but after the new government took office in 2020, the country became a pawn of the United States, using various tough means to provoke China.
Around 2020, this small country began to follow the United States' clamoring for decoupling from China, in early 2020, Huawei, Nuctech and other Chinese companies were excluded from the country's official cooperation list, last year, the country's top level also followed Western countries to point fingers on the mainland's Xinjiang issue, and by the middle of this year, Lithuania announced its withdrawal from "17+1" cooperation, arrogantly accusing China of splitting Europe and calling on other countries to follow Lithuania's withdrawal. It can be said that in the past two years, the pitiful sense of existence of this small country in the international dance scene has been exchanged for crazy "anti-China performances".
(Minister of Economy of Lithuania)
Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the world environment has changed sharply, the inflation rate of European and American countries has skyrocketed, Lithuania is no exception, by October, Lithuania's inflation rate has reached 24.1%, twice that of the euro area, the United States is as much as four times, in the face of a bad economic environment, Lithuania does not have the confidence to provoke, the position of the country's officials has also turned 180 degrees.
On November 30, local time, Lithuanian Minister of Economy Almonette publicly stated that in today's intertwined global value chain, it is impossible to completely exclude China.
Her conclusion is also supported by data, although Lithuania's trade with other Asia-Pacific countries has increased, it still cannot compensate for the impact of the lack of trade with China. For example, in the first nine months of this year, Lithuania's exports to China fell by 67% year-on-year, to only 60.7 million euros.
On the one hand, the high inflation of commodity scarcity and the near interruption of trade with China on the other hand, the situation facing Lithuania is a microcosm of European and American countries.
(Lithuanian Foreign Minister has repeatedly spoken strongly)
Almonette finally recognized the situation, admitted that decoupling from China was unrealistic, and hoped for an early resumption of trade between the two countries. However, today, the trade between the two countries is not a simple trade dispute, but also deeply involved in geopolitical issues.
Lithuania is one of the few European "supporters" of the Taiwan authorities, and compared with South America and the Caribbean countries that only want money, this small country wants to improve its own voice, and has done an equally outrageous job in supporting the Taiwan authorities and opposing the mainland.
On June 30 last year, Lithuania's foreign minister announced that he would set up "representative offices" in Taiwan and Southeast Asia, and in subsequent visits, the economy minister threatened not to worry about Chinese sanctions.
Why not be afraid? Because the close cooperation of the Taiwan authorities has given Lithuania the illusion of being divorced from the real world. After Lithuania's statement, Taiwan's foreign affairs official Wu Zhaoxie also began to build momentum. On November 18, 21, Lithuania approved the request for the establishment of the so-called "Taiwan Representative Office in Lithuania". Subsequently, it was strongly opposed by the Chinese side.
(Wu Zhaoxie)
China downgraded relations to the level of chargé d'affaires as a countermeasure, and trade relations between the two countries were dealt a devastating blow, and strictly speaking, China has never sanctioned Lithuania, and the trade collapse in Lithuania is entirely the result of the Lithuanian government's own fault.
In fact, Lithuania did this in order to take advantage of the gap between the EU and the United States, in addition to playing the Taiwan card to gain popularity, enhance the voice in Europe and the Western camp, but also cooperate with the United States to contain China and implement value diplomacy, but as a small country, Lithuania is difficult to obtain long-term support in the process of manipulating geopolitical issues.
Europe cannot give such support, and the United States cannot help. That is why Lithuania, after sticking to the anti-Chinese line for two years, has finally bowed its head. A few days ago, the DPP's crushing defeat in the nine-in-one election shattered the last hopes of this small Eastern European country.
(Tsai Ing-wen)
A few days ago, the Chinese Kuomintang won a big victory, occupying 13 of the 21 county and city seats on the island, while the DPP retained only 5 seats, and Tsai Ing-wen resigned as chairman of the DPP. Since then, the Tsai Ing-wen and anti-Tsai Ing-wen factions of the DPP have fallen into infighting, and the crisis of disintegration has emerged.
The DPP's faltering means that the radical forces of "Taiwan independence" are gradually dying out, the consensus of '92 and even the voice of promoting reunification have begun to become the mainstream.
Small European countries in the Baltic Sea are also acutely aware of this, and there will be no market for supporting "Taiwan independence" from now on, and if they do not change their posture, they are likely to be greeted with a total overturn in the Asian market.
(Lithuania)
But there are not so many regret pills to take in the world, and the trick of "if you can't beat it, you can join" is not easy for China. If Lithuania wants to truly restore relations between the two countries, it must not only shout to the mainland, but also clear its relations with the Taiwan authorities and truly return to the one-China policy.