[Epoch Times January 6, 2022]Because of the establishment of a representative office named Taiwan in the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, a small Baltic country, suffered a series of diplomatic and economic retaliations by the CCP, and its import and export trade with China was blocked. European products have also been boycotted to a considerable extent. The CCP wants to be subdued, but Lithuania is not afraid of rape. This has become a major hotspot at present and affects the evolution of the international landscape.
Lithuania is a member of the European Union and NATO. The coercion and anti-coercion between Lithuania and the Chinese Communist Party cannot but involve the relationship between the United States, the European Union, NATO and the Chinese Communist Party.
First, the Biden government is backing Lithuania. There are four main actions. First, in August 2021, the CCP recalled its ambassador to Lithuania and asked Lithuania to recall its ambassador to China. The United States immediately supported Lithuania. The foreign ministers of the United States and Lithuania reached an agreement on “bilateral coordination actions” to help Lithuania resist the CCP. Second, the Export-Import Bank of the United States and Lithuania signed a $600 million export credit agreement. Third, on December 13, 2021, the Minister of Defense of Lithuania visited the Pentagon. The two sides agreed to sign a “reciprocal defense procurement agreement.” The US Secretary of Defense praised Lithuania as a “beacon of regional democracy.” Fourth, the United States coordinates its allies to support Lithuania. As Lithuania faces the political pressure of the Chinese Communist Party and the escalation of economic coercion, the foreign ministers of the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom made a call on December 29, 2021. , Abbreviated as B9) The Foreign Minister spoke, and both talks emphasized unanimous support for Lithuania.
Second, the United States led NATO to increase troops in Lithuania. At the same time as Lithuania and China are violent, Russia’s military forces on the Russian-Ukrainian border and the deterioration of the situation in Eastern Europe have also posed a major threat to Lithuania. At this time, on December 10, 2021, Asta Skaisgiryte, adviser to the President of Lithuania, stated that President Biden promised to provide more military support to NATO’s Central European member states. According to media reports, in accordance with NATO’s strategy of “enhancing frontier presence”, NATO has sent more than 6,000 troops to Poland and the Baltic countries, carrying all kinds of equipment. A U.S. armored unit is stationed in the border area of Lithuania. On November 29, 2021, the Slovak Army, one of the NATO member states, also made an emergency surge to Lithuania. A large number of heavy wheeled self-propelled artillery entered the territory of Lithuania to enhance Lithuania’s defense capabilities.
The U.S.-China, U.S.-Russian rivalry has intensified, and Lithuania is under double pressure from the CCP and Russia. It is natural for the Biden administration to support Lithuania and increase its troops.
Faced with CCP bullying, Lithuania seeks EU unity to deal with economic coercion. For example, on December 6, 2021, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote to the European Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, complaining that the Chinese government used an undeclared war to prevent the entry of products from Lithuanian pharmaceutical, electronic and food companies The Chinese market claims that this has caused “the politically motivated economic pressure of the Chinese (Communist) country to rise to unprecedented heights.” “These actions against a member of the EU directly affect the entire EU and our common trade policy,” he said, “It is necessary to react strongly to this at the EU level… ) The country sends a signal that politically motivated economic pressure is unacceptable.”
In fact, the CCP’s economic coercion has begun to damage the Lithuanian economy. The German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce has informed the Lithuanian government in writing that due to Beijing’s actions, German investors may have to close their factories in Lithuania unless a “constructive solution is found to restore economic relations between Lithuania and China”. Vidmantas Januliavicius, chairman of the Federation of Lithuanian Industrialists, mentioned in an interview last December that Lithuanian industry’s losses in 2021 may reach 3 billion to 5 billion euros. According to a Bloomberg report on December 30, 2021, the Lithuanian government is considering an aid package worth 130 million euros to support affected companies.
However, compared with the United States, the EU’s support for Lithuania appears weak.
Although the EU believes that Taiwan’s establishment of a representative office in Lithuania has not violated the EU’s “One China” policy (“The EU believes that Taiwan’s representative office is not an embassy or consulate and should therefore not be a problem”, and the EU and its 15 member states It also has a representative office in Taiwan); although the EU has warned that the dispute between the CCP and Lithuania may be submitted to the World Trade Organization for settlement (this may take several years); although on the evening of January 4 this year, the European Commission Chairperson Ursula von der Leyen discussed the current situation with the Prime Minister of Lithuania. Von der Leyen subsequently tweeted that she had provided Lithuania with full support to “resolve the current trade friction with China”; However, so far, the EU has not launched any substantial and strong measures to support Lithuania. Even on January 5, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “The EU seems unable to respond to China’s trade coercion”, saying that the CCP’s pressure on Lithuania to allow the establishment of a representative office in Taiwan has triggered disagreements within the EU. It also makes people question again whether the EU has the ability to protect its huge market from the pressure of the Chinese Communist Party.
Of course, the CCP has been trying to divorce Lithuania’s relations with the EU. For example, the official media “Global Times” stated that although Lithuania is a member of the EU, Sino-European trade should not be “interfered or hijacked” by Lithuania. However, the appeasement tendency within the EU is the main reason. Too much emphasis on EU-China economic relations (China surpassed the United States to become the EU’s largest trading partner in 2020), is not clear about the nature of the CCP’s internal autocracy and external expansion, and dreams of finding a balance between the United States and China.
The CCP’s aggressive coercion of Lithuania is not limited to the Taiwan issue. It is a major strategic action towards Europe. The EU’s “cognitive division” of China’s policy should be transformed into “mutual respect, mutual learning, and mutual assistance”. “.
In fact, the CCP is good at profiting temptations and defeating them individually. In the current evolution of the international strategic pattern of Sino-US confrontation, the EU is the key united front target of the CCP. The purpose is to separate the relationship between Europe and the United States, and the second is to split the EU from within (the China-EU “17+1” cooperation mechanism is such a strategic platform. Most of the countries in “17” are EU member states, and Lithuania has withdrawn from May 2021).
Therefore, the EU urgently needs to recognize the intentions of the CCP and introduce substantive measures to support Lithuania as soon as possible. At least:
First, officially tell the CCP: Lithuania’s exports are European exports, and any action against Lithuanian exports is an action against European exports. (No one has said such a thing yet.)
Second, take countering the CCP’s coercion of Lithuania as a good example, and accelerate the legislative process of the “Regulations for the Protection of the Union and its Member States from Economic Coercion of Third Countries” (The European Commission officially announced the draft proposal on December 8, 2021, and the draft is basically mature. , Currently accepting feedback).
Historically, appeasementism has caused catastrophes in Europe. Churchill once said to the then British Prime Minister Chamberlain: Let you choose between war and shame, you choose shame, and you will have to go to war in the future. More than 80 years later, this sentence is still shocking.
The Epoch Times
Editor in charge: Gao Yi#
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