#头条创作挑战赛#
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[Preface]
As a small European country, Lithuania has angered China on more than one occasion on the "Taiwan issue" and has even broken through the one-China principle.
A few years ago, Lithuania was diplomatically downgraded by China, and after that, they suffered a lot, and the end was not without tragedy.
Now that Lithuania is finally going to be unable to hold back, it has really felt the consequences of making the wrong choice, and Lithuania has made a change.
Why was Lithuania diplomatically downgraded by China in the first place? What have they been through all these years? What has changed today?
Downgraded by Chinese diplomacy
In 2021, the Lithuanian government ignored China's dissuasion and insisted on creating "one China, one Taiwan" in the international community.
This is not the first time that Lithuania has openly "provoked" China in the international community, and they have not only made insulting remarks, but even openly violated the one-China principle.
Lithuania has announced the establishment of mutual representative offices with Taiwan, and such diplomatic acts generally exist only between two countries.
Obviously, Lithuania wants to treat Taiwan Province as a country, and Taiwan naturally announced the news with joy.
The Taiwan authorities claim that this is the first representative office in Europe to bear the name of Taiwan, and of course it is the first, and no country has dared to violate the one-China principle in the international arena so brazenly before this.
At a time when Taiwan boasted that this was a major diplomatic breakthrough for Taiwan, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately warned that we resolutely oppose any form of official exchanges between countries having diplomatic ties with Taiwan Province.
However, after China's warning, Lithuania is still inappropriate, and Lithuania's foreign ministry has also said that it will do everything possible to help Taiwan within the scope of its international obligations.
Even though the Chinese Embassy in Lithuania also published a signed article warning the Lithuanian side that Taiwan belongs to China, this so-called representative office was still put up for operation and began to operate.
On the same day, our Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Lithuania's behavior is extremely bad in nature, and the Chinese Government strongly protests and resolutely opposes it.
Just three days later, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement announcing that diplomatic relations with Lithuania would be downgraded to the level of chargé d'affaires.
Whether before or after the establishment of diplomatic relations, we have no enmity or grudge with Lithuania, but Lithuania has always been hostile to China.
At the beginning, their attitude towards China was not so obvious, until the establishment of a representative office in Taiwan, it was almost torn face.
After China made a diplomatic de-escalation statement, some Lithuanian experts warned the government that such an act was provoking China's bottom line.
China has not taken such drastic action for many years, and before that, it was in the eighties that China made diplomatic downgrades.
It is clear that Lithuania has stepped on the nail this time, and we not only made a diplomatic de-escalation of Lithuania, but also issued a warning to the Taiwan side.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned the Taiwan side that "attempts to gain self-respect by relying on foreign countries and engaging in political manipulation will ultimately lead to a dead end."
The Chinese side has repeatedly warned Lithuania, saying that "everyone can wait and see, and the Lithuanian side will take the blame for itself and will reap the consequences."
Tried playing with words
Originally, Lithuania did not care about China's warnings and practical actions, after all, after China's diplomatic downgrade, people immediately asked Europe and the United States for help.
But slowly, they realized that something was wrong, that China was doing what it said it would do, and that their stupid behavior was cornering the country.
Lithuania is only a small country covering an area of 65,300 square kilometers, and even the population is only a few million, and for China, Lithuania is just a county-level city.
In the past, Lithuania got a lot of benefits from participating in China's Belt and Road Initiative, but after provoking China, we directly cut off these cooperation.
The Lithuanian government realized how important economic and trade relations with China were, but instead of repenting, they wanted to keep the matter in the dark as they could.
Just a few months after the downgrade of diplomatic relations, Lithuania's president, Nauseda, wanted to change his tune, but only wanted to change the name of the so-called representative office in Taiwan.
At the beginning, Lithuania and China would have such a scene, which was inseparable from this Nauseda, and for a small country like Lithuania, Nauseda's political path can indeed be regarded as smooth sailing.
In the early years, he was a teacher of economics, and later when he went abroad, he was a financier in Germany, and when he returned to Lithuania, he also used these connections to enter the committee, and was in charge of the financial market.
After all, it was the money bags of a country that were approaching, and Nauseda slowly came into contact with the political core of Lithuania.
This is not enough, he wants not only power, but also influence, so he began to frequently brush his face on the show, and many years of economic news commentary programs have made him familiar with the people.
When he participated in the general election candidacy, his image was already a household name, and his comments on the economy on the show also let the public see the connection between him and politics and economy.
Before taking office, he had been preaching that he wanted to be close to the EU and NATO, and then he used his experience of studying in Germany to emphasize that he advocated close ties between Lithuania and NATO and the EU.
After being elected president, Nauseda continued to get closer to the United States for the sake of his previous ideas, and even became a pawn of the United States in promoting the threat of China and Russia.
At that time, the United States was still in power with Trump, and Lithuania's political position had been close to that of the United States, and after Biden took office, the United States' strategy in Europe changed very much.
After all, Lithuania is only a small country, and if they want to improve their position in the US strategy at this time, they must be taken seriously by the United States.
The United States regards China as a thorn in its side, and the entry point for dealing with China is Taiwan, so Lithuania also started from Taiwan.
But they only see their dependence on the US economy, desperately trying to curry favor with the United States, and even going so far as to openly provoke our one-China principle in the international community.
They lick the United States without principle, but they do not realize that trade with China is also a major part of their economic development.
A few months after China downgraded diplomatic relations with Lithuania, Lithuania's economy and trade plummeted, and Nauseda remembered to remedy it.
But instead of removing the beginning of that contradiction, that is, the "Taiwan Representative Office", they wanted to change the name of the place.
Nauseda meant at that time that he wanted to change the name of this "Taiwan Representative Office" to "Taiwan Representative Office", and he was not even willing to change the English translation together, only slightly changing it in Chinese.
因为在英文中，不论是台湾代表处还是台湾人代表处，都是一样的表达“The Taiwanese Representative office in Lithuanian”。
They just want to slightly modify the translated Taiwan representative office, after all, "Taiwanese" means "Taiwanese" in this context, but when taken out separately, it also has the meaning of Taiwanese.
It's a play on words, but they still want to re-engage with China in this way.
They thought that such a few sentences could avoid being linked to "political entities", and in fact, such economic and trade representative offices could only be named "Taipei" according to regulations.
Lithuania defied the world's condemnation and broke the original convention by naming Taiwan after it, and their actions have already paid the price.
Finally I couldn't hold it anymore
Lithuania's general election is about to start again, and at such a critical juncture, they naturally hope to ease relations with China.
In the election debate, relations with Chinese mainland and Taiwan have also become a hot topic among candidates.
For Lithuania now, whoever can ease relations with Chinese mainland and save some trade contacts will naturally be more likely to gain popular support.
Lithuanian President Nauseda naturally understands this, so he also said that it is necessary to change the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office in Lithuania" in order to stabilize relations with China.
In other European countries, Taiwan's representative offices are named after "Taipei", and Lito's unconventional behavior has directly led to diplomatic downgrade, and now it is indeed necessary to change the name if you want to stabilize relations.
However, it is necessary to change the name, and it is never necessary to change the name and stabilize relations with China, and it is necessary to change the name if we want to stabilize relations, but it is not necessary to change the name to achieve what we want.
However, Lithuania can make such a statement, which has shown that their attitude has softened, in the past few years, presumably their life has not been too easy, and now it is time for the general election, and they can no longer hold back.
Nauseda said that when the name was first given, the name of the representative office was not specified, and this statement was actually just to give a reasonable reason for becoming "Taipei".
Lithuania's change of the name of the Taiwan representative office to Taipei is only the first step, because for China, this name is not the most important, the key is Lithuania's attitude and position.
The relationship between the two countries that they are now is not entirely due to the name of a representative office in a distant country, but also to the attitude and choice of the Lithuanian side behind it.
They dared to use such a name at that time, which meant that they stood on the stand of Taiwan independence, and this was a provocation to China's principles, and the deterioration of relations was inevitable.
end
Lithuania can't hold back now, and when it says to change the name of the representative office during the general election, we can't just be gullible, and we should also watch its deeds by listening to its words.
If you want to ease relations, you can't just talk about it, you have to take practical actions, just talk about it, and let's just take a look.
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END
Resources
A report by the Global Times on May 9, 2024 titled "It is necessary to change the name of the 'Taiwan Representative Office'".
On May 29, 2024, the Observer Network published "The President of Lithuania Proposes to Change the Name of the "Taiwan Representative Office" to "Stabilize Relations with China"
On May 10, 2024, Taiwan Strait Network reported that the President of Lithuania intends to change the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office" to "stabilize relations with China".
On January 26, 2022, the Observer.com published "Backed Down? British media broke the news: Lithuania is considering asking the Taiwan authorities to change the name of the "Taiwan Representative Office".
On November 21, 2021, Beiqing Zhengzhi New Media published "Neutral Relations Downgraded to Chargé d'Affaires Level! China has clearly sent a signal".
On November 22, 2021, the Global Times reported on "China Announces Diplomatic Relations Downgrade, Expert: If Lithuania Insists on Going Its Own Way, the Possibility of Severing Diplomatic Relations cannot be ruled out".