Global Network quoted Hong Kong media news that the European Union suddenly announced that it would suspend helping Lithuania sue China at the WTO.
It has been learned that the notice issued by the EU to WTO member states mentions that for technical reasons, the EU side hopes to immediately suspend the proceedings in accordance with the relevant provisions of the memorandum of understanding.
(The EU suspends WTO litigation against China over the so-called "Lithuania under economic coercion" for "technical reasons")
The dispute first originated in early 2022, a year before that, Lithuania, a member of the European Union, insisted on setting up representative offices with the Taiwan authorities despite China's strong opposition, which directly led to the downgrading of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania, and the economic and trade relations between the two countries fell to a freezing point, and Lithuanian goods almost completely lost the Chinese market, causing heavy losses to the country's economy.
As a result, Lithuania labeled China as "economic coercion" and approached the EU, hoping that the other party would sue China on this ground, and the EU then filed a lawsuit with the WTO on the grounds that China had adopted "discriminatory trade" practices.
（WTO）
Although it is not yet certain that this case will end there, as the reason given by the EU for the suspension is technical, and they are required to resume the proceedings with one year, it is worth mentioning that the timing of the EU's decision to suspend the prosecution is somewhat peculiar.
As soon as the results of the elections in the Taiwan region were announced, Lithuania could not wait to organize a delegation to visit Taiwan, and in its meeting with Tsai Ing-wen, the delegation also talked about the need to continue to promote bilateral relations and strengthen economic, trade, and scientific and technological cooperation.
The Chinese side has long stressed that Lithuania has violated the commitments made by the Taiwan authorities when it established diplomatic relations with China and the basic norms governing international relations. Judging from Lithuania's various actions, even if it has paid a heavy price, they have not relented in the slightest on the Taiwan issue. Including the current visit to Taiwan by a delegation, it is also a blatant provocation, but it has not yet finished its military display and suddenly received the bad news that it has been abandoned by the European Union, which will definitely be a huge blow to Lithuania.
(President Nauseda of Lithuania)
In fact, this decision of the European Union is not surprising. First, the WTO litigation process is quite complicated, cases often last for several years, and collecting all kinds of so-called data is a difficult problem, and second, the EU does not have a full chance of winning, even if it really spends a lot of effort to fight a lawsuit, it may only get a vague result in the end.
Moreover, China has long reminded the EU that the dispute between China and Lithuania is a political issue, not an economic issue, and that China firmly opposes any attempt to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan", and hopes that the EU will be able to distinguish between right and wrong. This is clearly something that the EU side is not willing to bear.
(Foreign Minister Wang Yi)
After all, how important China's market is, the EU is very clear, since last year, EU leaders have taken turns to visit China, are repeatedly emphasizing that they are unwilling to "decouple" from China, and especially now, the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has made the EU the biggest victim, the energy crisis is accompanied by economic recession, and the United States will cut leeks, if the cooperation with China is affected again at this time, the EU's economy will be worse. The EU knows which is more important.
In the final analysis, Lithuania's current situation is also self-inflicted, and even Lithuanian President Nauseda has realized that China is a big country with a good memory, and China will not give room for negotiation when it comes to core interests involving national sovereignty, and if Lithuania really wants to change its own situation, what it should do more than expect the EU to make decisions for itself is to reflect on itself and return to the "one-China" principle at an early date.