Since 2021, when there was a rift between China and Lithuania over the establishment of a "Taiwan representative office", diplomatic relations were downgraded. After three years, Lithuanian President Nauseda mentioned the matter again on May 7, issuing an appeal saying that he hoped to improve relations with China. At the same time, in order to achieve this goal, Nauseda believes that in the naming of the "Taiwan Representative Office", it is possible to adopt the international standard and replace "Taiwan" with "Taipei", which will help ease the relationship between Neurvis and Beijing, and thus promote the normalization of neutral relations.
In fact, this is not the first time that Lithuania has taken a position on this issue. As early as 2022, Nauseda released news that the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office" should be changed, but at that time, Nauseda proposed that it was hoped that the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office" should be changed to be less politically significant, such as replacing it with "Taiwanese Representative Office".
But Nauseda's move was clearly a play on words and did not really recognize the mistake. This is because there is no essential difference between the "Taiwanese representative office" and the "Taiwan representative office" themselves. Because from the perspective of English translation, there is an antagonistic relationship between "Taiwanese" and "Chinese" themselves, which means that they are two different "countries" and seriously violate the one-China principle, so the international community has been trying its best to avoid the emergence of such terms, which means that whether it is a "Taiwan representative office" or a "Taiwanese representative office", its expression is not in line with the one-China policy.
Nauseda
Now, with Nauseda saying that it can be changed to "Taipei Representative Office", it shows that Lithuania's attitude has softened. In addition, Nauseda also said that Lithuania welcomed Taiwan's establishment of a representative office in Lithuania in principle, but it must establish normal and stable relations with China, which was also regarded as an outpost for Lithuania to fine-tune neutral relations.
In addition, Nauseda said that when the Taiwan authorities set up a representative office in Lithuania, they did not clearly indicate the name of the "representative office", so this also made it possible for Lithuania to change its name, so the "Taiwan representative office" should be changed to "Taipei representative office" to meet international standards.
The most important issue for Lithuania to deal with now is actually how to repair relations with China, because the diplomatic conflict between the two countries has led to serious losses for Lithuania's foreign export enterprises, and the problem of inflation in Lithuania has not been truly solved.
Neutral relations
From China's point of view, what kind of naming method Lithuania will eventually adopt is not the most important, the most important thing is that Lithuania's practice has violated the "one China" political commitment made by Lithuania to China when neutral diplomatic relations were established, the one-China principle is the basis of neutral diplomatic relations, Lithuania has personally abolished the foundation, and the deterioration of neutral diplomatic relations cannot be blamed on China, Lithuania should find problems in itself, and at the same time if it wants to repair neutral relations, Lithuania should also take the initiative to do something, You can't just talk about it.
Because when Lithuanian President Nauseda put forward this statement, the time happened to be on the day of the Lithuanian general election, which cast a different meaning behind this set of rhetoric.
On May 7, Lithuania's general elections kicked off early, with a total of eight Lithuanian politicians running, and Nauseda also sought re-election to the post of Lithuanian president.
Therefore, Nauseda cannot be fully believed in this statement, and we should listen to his words and watch his deeds. After all, the overall deterioration of relations between the two countries is itself the result of the administration of Nauseda. The deterioration of relations between China and Lithuania has dealt a blow to the Lithuanian economy, so if we want to be re-elected, it is more important to change our attitude towards China. However, if we want to repair relations with China, the prerequisite is to solve the problem of the "Taiwan representative office", because if this problem is not resolved, there will be no political basis for diplomatic relations between the two countries, and there will be no way to talk about repairing relations between the two countries in the future.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that apart from Nauseda making a fuss on the issue of the "Taiwan Representative Office", there are no other candidates who have proposed to change the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office", which also means that there is a contradiction in Lithuania whether to change the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office", and Nauseda's idea has not reached an agreement with the internal political forces in Lithuania.
In fact, there are traces of this. After the deterioration of relations between neutrality, some European countries and the European Union first expressed solidarity with Lithuania, and even the economic and trade relations between Lithuania and Europe benefited from this. Lithuanian parliamentarians, both ruling and oppositional, are scrambling to join forces to "go" to Taiwan, the most recent of which was the visit of the "Taiwan Friendship Group" of the Lithuanian parliament in January, which has given Lithuanian politicians a lot of exposure and Lithuania more attention from the West as a whole. Lithuania's continued maintenance of relations with the Taiwan region will help Lithuanian politicians gain political benefits and money, after all, it is not once or twice that the DPP authorities have sent money to visiting politicians of other countries.
In the short term, probably, Lithuanian politicians will earn quite a few benefits. However, in the long run, the confrontation between neutrals will further lead to the blockage of trade between neutrals, and China's importance in the global economic and trade system is needless to say, so Lithuania's long-term death will not be conducive to Lithuania's economic development, and will eventually react on this group of politicians, such as the Lithuanian people are dissatisfied with the Nauseda government's unfavorable control of inflation.
Finally, in general, the attitude of Nauseda on the issue of changing the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office" does not represent the attitude of the internal political forces in Lithuania. Especially at the moment of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Lithuania itself is under tremendous military pressure from Russia, and in this case, it is even more unlikely that Lithuania will give up the position of following the United States, but it is more likely to continue to strengthen its tough attitude on the Taiwan issue in order to hug the thigh of the United States. So Nauseda's soft rhetoric, let's just listen to it, don't take it very seriously.