'Chinese Economic Retaliation' Reversed in a Day: "Lithuanian Lawmakers Invited to Taiwan"

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (Photo by Reuters)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Taiwan's leadership announced that it will invite a delegation of Lithuanian lawmakers to visit Taiwan next week. This decision comes after China strongly warned of economic retaliation against Lithuania for allowing the establishment of a Taiwanese representative office.

According to major foreign media on the 24th (local time), Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that six Lithuanian lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties will visit Taiwan on July 2-3. The list of Lithuanian lawmakers scheduled to visit Taiwan includes some who have been sanctioned by China.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that around 10 lawmakers from the three Baltic Sea countries?Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia?will visit Taiwan next week to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

In response, the Chinese government strongly opposed the move. The Chinese Embassy in Lithuania stated, "This decision to visit is not a proper action," and "Visiting Taiwan sends the wrong message to Taiwan."

Earlier, China had warned of strong economic retaliation against Lithuania, which downgraded diplomatic relations over the Taiwan issue. At a regular briefing the previous day, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in response to a question about whether punitive measures in economic and trade sectors would be taken against Lithuania, "Since they have committed a mistake, they must pay the price."

He further strongly criticized, "Lithuania has betrayed trust and knowingly committed a mistake," and "Openly creating a 'One China, One Taiwan' precedent internationally is a bad example."

China and Lithuania established diplomatic relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but relations began to sour after the government inaugurated last year strengthened ties with Taiwan. The conflict deepened when Lithuania banned the import of security and inspection equipment products from China's Nuctech, which is blacklisted by the United States, citing national security reasons.

In July, when Lithuania announced an agreement to establish representative offices with Taiwan on both sides, China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania in August and demanded the Lithuanian ambassador in Beijing to leave as well.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.