Beijing, irritated by the rapprochement between the state Baltic and Taiwan, put pressure on commercial companies with Vilnius.
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Between war and peace, there is a state that diplomats qualify for “hybrid war”. To punish Lithuania to get closer to Taiwan, Beijing is at the process of leading a real “hybrid economic war” to this small state Baltic and, at the same time, to the European Union (EU).
Since Lithuania has authorized the opening, at the end of November, in Vilnius, a “Taiwan representation office” – and not just the capital, Taipei – Beijing multiplies acts of reprisal. In addition to the reminder of his ambassador to Vilnius and the expulsion of the Lithuanian Ambassador in China, Beijing reduced the level of his diplomatic representation in Vilnius. Lithuanian diplomats in China has been forced to make their diplomatic accreditation on December 14, without being certain to be accredited again, Vilnius preferred to organize mid-December the emergency repatriation of about twenty diplomats. Note that Beijing denies that the slightest threat weighed on these people.
The same blurry surrounds commercial retaliation. Officially, these do not exist. But at the beginning of December, containers arriving from Lithuania in the Chinese ports were no longer allowed to be discharged due to a “technical problem”. This “problem” seems to have been solved, but, according to Vilnius, multinationals working with Lithuania would have seen their products blocked at the entrance of China.
“Give a lesson”
According to our information, German, French and American companies would be concerned. The Politico website cites the case of Swedish companies. “As the only products are concerned, companies prefer not to communicate,” explains a Western diplomat. Asked again on December 22, the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this embargo. A few days earlier, he said that Lithuania “acted in bad faith (…), gives the false impression that there is China and a Taiwan (…). China (…) will defend its fundamental interests”.
Just read the Global Times to see that China does an embargo to certain products. “There are so many ways to give a lesson to Lithuania. One of them could be more effective than others: [inflicting] American sanctions on foreign companies”. And the daily life, which belongs to the Chinese Communist Party, to specify on December 21: “For example, the United States has put Huawei on a list, prohibiting any foreign semiconductor company to sell electronic chips having been Developed through American technologies, without having previously obtained the authorization, which is in fact an embargo. While the purpose of the United States (…) is to try to unjustly harm competitors (…) , a similar action by China to preserve its national interests would be fully justified. “The daily goes even further:” China has the right to prohibit a company from selling products including components or Chinese technologies and vice versa . “
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