New Delhi, (Asian independent) Relations between China and Lithuania are headed for a stormy patch with the latter’s decision to let Taiwan open up a trade office and calling out China on various issues, says a member of the Lithuanian Parliament.
Participating in a webinar titled ‘Whither Lithuania-China Relations?’, organised by Red Lantern Analytica on August 27, Dovile Sakaliene, who is also a member of the parliament’s National Security and Defence Committee and had been a journalist and human rights defender, sketched out the issues between her Baltic country and China.
Sakaliene, who has been very vocal about calling out China’s treatment of Uyghurs and as a result, has even been blacklisted and sanctioned by China, was interviewed by Dr Sriparna Pathak, an Associate Professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University and Director of its centre for North-East Asian studies.
Recently, Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a trade representatives office in its capital and is allowing it to use the name ‘Taiwan’ instead of Taipei which other countries usually do. This decision has greatly irked the People’s Republic of China as it claims Taiwan to be a part of it and considers this move to be a threat to the one-China policy.
Asked that Chinese imports into the European Union have actually gone up in 2021 despite the numerous allegations of human rights abuses and claims of forced labour and where does Lithuania stand in regards to this, Sakaliene said that any one that cares about human dignity and morality would rejects products coming out of Xinjiang.
“The main export from Xinjiang is cotton and this sector comprises very little percentage of Lithuania’s GDP. While it is true that trade between the EU and China remains high, EU leaders and their policies are slowly changing and Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) has been doing a good job in calling out China for its abusive behaviour and trying to change EU’s stance.
“Lithuania has very low economic dependence on China and that is one of the main reasons it has been able to stand up to China’s bullying tactics. While Lithuania is a small country, they are still a member of the democratic club and wish to remain true to their ideals, values, and principles,” she said.
On the opening of the Taiwan representative office, Sakaliene stated that Lithuania took a systematic approach, and it is not an embassy, as claimed by some newspapers, thus, maintaining the one-China policy somewhat. But the most important factor is that the office will be under the name of Taiwan and not Taipei, she said, adding that Lithuania is an independent country and therefore it reserves the right to establish trade and cultural relations with any country it chooses.
On whether Lithuania expected retaliation from China in the form of weaponising trade as it did with Australia when Australia asked for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19, Sakaliene said that China had already taken some hostile steps against Lithuania.
“China had put train connections on hold with Lithuania, as well as creating several obstacles for Lithuanian companies operating in China. Past trade deals between China and Lithuania were also suddenly annulled. While Lithuania does not wish a trade war with China, Beijing’s actions show clear hostility,” she said.
She also added that these measure taken by China do not come as a surprise. Under the recently amended National Security Law, private Chinese companies are required to provide data regarding all economic activity to the party. This ensures that private companies in China, as well as foreign companies operating in China have no privacy.
In addition, China has recently also enacted the anti-sanctions law which allows Beijing to freeze the assets of western companies and arbitrarily deport employees, she said.
“These factors make the Chines economic environment extremely unpredictable. Lithuania is just trying to defend its values and principles while wishing for its trade partners to be predictable.
“Lithuania has already started taking steps in order to ensure that China’s actions do not negatively impact it. Lithuania is reaching out to its allies like the US and Taiwan so as to alleviate the pressure from its companies,” Sakaliene said.
With a report in Global Times on how China and Russia could ally together to punish Lithuania, Sakaliene, asked whether Lithuania’s relation with Russia were impacted at all due to China’s influence, said that Global Times is a mouth piece of the Chinese Communist Party, therefore, its threats do carry some weight. In addition, Lithuania’s relations with Russia have been strained since “occupation times” and especially recently since Russia is performing military drills close to the Lithuanian border.
But officially Russia has not responded to the report by Global Times or taken an steps against Lithuania, she added.
On how China is attempting to change the world order and how can the international community tackle China’s aggressive actions, Sakaliene said that the current world order was built on rule of law, and mutual respect for other nations and their borders.
“In order to maintain peace and stability, nations must stick to it. But unfortunately, some nations have recently tried to challenge these rules and China is among these nations.
“China has made wild territorial claims in its neighbourhood that has brought it into conflict with almost all its neighbours. The only way to combat China is for the international community to stick together and stand up to every attempt by China to violate our borders, our rules, and the rule of law.”
As Lithuania and India have in a sense faced the same backlash from China and thus does the shared experience open up the possibility of future cooperation, Sakaliene said that she was very optimistic about future cooperation between Lithuania and India as they have more in common with each other than just China.
“The Communist Chinese regime is very similar to the Communist Soviet regime of the past in terms of double standards, repression, and prison camps. Therefore, Lithuania like India knows what it means to live next to an authoritative state that does not know what democracy looks like,” she said.
She added that Lithuania and India are connected by history, culture and language and thus have a lot in common. In the future, Lithuania and India could be good friends, she stressed.
