Lithuania vs. China: A Baltic Minnow Defies a Rising Superpower
Lithuania has enraged China by advising officials to scrap Chinese phones that it says contain censorship software, while cozying up to Taiwan and quitting a Chinese-led regional forum.
By Andrew Higgins
Published Sept. 30, 2021
Updated Oct. 1, 2021, 5:45 a.m. ET
VILNIUS, Lithuania — It was never a secret that China tightly controls what its people can read and write on their cellphones. But it came as a shock to officials in Lithuania when they discovered that a popular Chinese-made handset sold in the Baltic nation had a hidden though dormant feature: a censorship registry of 449 terms banned by the Chinese Communist Party.
Lithuania’s government swiftly advised officials using the phones to dump them, enraging China — and not for the first time. Lithuania has also embraced Taiwan, a vibrant democracy that Beijing regards as a renegade province, and pulled out of a Chinese-led regional forum that it scorned as divisive for the European Union.
Furious, Beijing has recalled its ambassador, halted trips by a Chinese cargo train into the country and made it nearly impossible for many Lithuanian exporters to sell their goods in China. Chinese state media has assailed Lithuania, mocked its diminutive size and accused it of being the “anti-China vanguard” in Europe.
In the battlefield of geopolitics, Lithuania versus China is hardly a fair fight — a tiny Baltic nation with fewer than 3 million people against a rising superpower with 1.4 billion. Lithuania’s military has no tanks or fighter jets, and its economy is 270 times smaller than China’s.
But, surprisingly, Lithuania has proved that even tiny countries can create headaches for a superpower, especially one like China whose diplomats seem determined to make other nations toe their line. Indeed, Lithuania, which does little trade with China, has caused enough of a stink that its fellow members in the European Union are expected to discuss the situation at a meeting next week. Nothing could be worse for Beijing than if other countries followed Lithuania’s example.
For Lithuania, the threats and tantrums from Beijing haven’t weakened the government’s resolve, in part because China has little leverage over it. In an interview, Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister, said the country had a “values-based foreign policy” of “supporting people supporting democratic movements.”
Other European countries declaring fealty to democratic values have rarely acted on them in their relations with China. Mr. Landsbergis’s party, however, has made action part of its appeal to domestic voters: Its pre-election manifesto last year included a promise to “maintain the value backbone” in foreign policy “with countries such as China.”
Lithuania’s small size, the foreign minister lamented, “made us an easy target” for China because “their calculation is that it is good to pick enemies way, way, way below your size, draw them into the fighting ring and then beat them to pulp.”
Eager to avoid getting pummeled, Mr. Landsbergis visited Washington this month and met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pledged “ironclad U.S. support for Lithuania in the face of attempted coercion from the People’s Republic of China.”
Despite its puny size, Lithuania looms surprisingly large in Chinese calculations, said Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing, partly because of its role as a transit corridor for trains carrying goods from China to Europe.
It also commands Chinese attention because of its oversize role in the collapse of the Soviet Union, a drama that China has studied in hope of heading off similar centrifugal forces at home. In 1990, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from Moscow — a cause led by the foreign minister’s grandfather, Vytautas Landsbergis.
“China regards Lithuania as a museum to save itself from a Soviet-like collapse,” Mr. Wu said.
The rift between the two countries flows from many sources, including a drive by Taiwan to rally political support, as well as Lithuanian elections last year that brought to power a new coalition government dominated by Mr. Landsbergis’ pro-American conservative party and liberals vociferous about defending human rights.
But it also reflects a wider backlash against China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy across Europe and disenchantment with soaring Chinese exports that left imports from Europe trailing far behind.
In recent years, China has created resentment through hectoring behavior that reminds many in Lithuania of past bullying by Moscow. In 2019 Chinese diplomats organized a belligerent protest to counter a rally by Lithuanian citizens in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. The Chinese intervention led to scuffles in Cathedral Square of Vilnius, the capital.
“This approach does not win China any friends,” said Gintaras Steponavicius, a former legislator who helped set up a lobbying group, the Taiwan Forum. “We are not used to being told how to behave, even by a superpower.”
Tylu kažkaip jau. Be to atostogos….
What an interesting read.
Interesting
dauk skaityt, krc lietuva number 1🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹💪💪💪💪💪👍💪👍
8 comments
Lithuania vs. China: A Baltic Minnow Defies a Rising Superpower
Lithuania has enraged China by advising officials to scrap Chinese phones that it says contain censorship software, while cozying up to Taiwan and quitting a Chinese-led regional forum.
By Andrew Higgins
Published Sept. 30, 2021
Updated Oct. 1, 2021, 5:45 a.m. ET
VILNIUS, Lithuania — It was never a secret that China tightly controls what its people can read and write on their cellphones. But it came as a shock to officials in Lithuania when they discovered that a popular Chinese-made handset sold in the Baltic nation had a hidden though dormant feature: a censorship registry of 449 terms banned by the Chinese Communist Party.
Lithuania’s government swiftly advised officials using the phones to dump them, enraging China — and not for the first time. Lithuania has also embraced Taiwan, a vibrant democracy that Beijing regards as a renegade province, and pulled out of a Chinese-led regional forum that it scorned as divisive for the European Union.
Furious, Beijing has recalled its ambassador, halted trips by a Chinese cargo train into the country and made it nearly impossible for many Lithuanian exporters to sell their goods in China. Chinese state media has assailed Lithuania, mocked its diminutive size and accused it of being the “anti-China vanguard” in Europe.
In the battlefield of geopolitics, Lithuania versus China is hardly a fair fight — a tiny Baltic nation with fewer than 3 million people against a rising superpower with 1.4 billion. Lithuania’s military has no tanks or fighter jets, and its economy is 270 times smaller than China’s.
But, surprisingly, Lithuania has proved that even tiny countries can create headaches for a superpower, especially one like China whose diplomats seem determined to make other nations toe their line. Indeed, Lithuania, which does little trade with China, has caused enough of a stink that its fellow members in the European Union are expected to discuss the situation at a meeting next week. Nothing could be worse for Beijing than if other countries followed Lithuania’s example.
For Lithuania, the threats and tantrums from Beijing haven’t weakened the government’s resolve, in part because China has little leverage over it. In an interview, Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister, said the country had a “values-based foreign policy” of “supporting people supporting democratic movements.”
Other European countries declaring fealty to democratic values have rarely acted on them in their relations with China. Mr. Landsbergis’s party, however, has made action part of its appeal to domestic voters: Its pre-election manifesto last year included a promise to “maintain the value backbone” in foreign policy “with countries such as China.”
Lithuania’s small size, the foreign minister lamented, “made us an easy target” for China because “their calculation is that it is good to pick enemies way, way, way below your size, draw them into the fighting ring and then beat them to pulp.”
Eager to avoid getting pummeled, Mr. Landsbergis visited Washington this month and met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pledged “ironclad U.S. support for Lithuania in the face of attempted coercion from the People’s Republic of China.”
Despite its puny size, Lithuania looms surprisingly large in Chinese calculations, said Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing, partly because of its role as a transit corridor for trains carrying goods from China to Europe.
It also commands Chinese attention because of its oversize role in the collapse of the Soviet Union, a drama that China has studied in hope of heading off similar centrifugal forces at home. In 1990, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from Moscow — a cause led by the foreign minister’s grandfather, Vytautas Landsbergis.
“China regards Lithuania as a museum to save itself from a Soviet-like collapse,” Mr. Wu said.
The rift between the two countries flows from many sources, including a drive by Taiwan to rally political support, as well as Lithuanian elections last year that brought to power a new coalition government dominated by Mr. Landsbergis’ pro-American conservative party and liberals vociferous about defending human rights.
But it also reflects a wider backlash against China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy across Europe and disenchantment with soaring Chinese exports that left imports from Europe trailing far behind.
In recent years, China has created resentment through hectoring behavior that reminds many in Lithuania of past bullying by Moscow. In 2019 Chinese diplomats organized a belligerent protest to counter a rally by Lithuanian citizens in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. The Chinese intervention led to scuffles in Cathedral Square of Vilnius, the capital.
“This approach does not win China any friends,” said Gintaras Steponavicius, a former legislator who helped set up a lobbying group, the Taiwan Forum. “We are not used to being told how to behave, even by a superpower.”
Tylu kažkaip jau. Be to atostogos….
What an interesting read.
Interesting
dauk skaityt, krc lietuva number 1🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹🇱🇹💪💪💪💪💪👍💪👍
Belieka pagaliau uždaryti [Konfucijaus institutą](https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konfucijaus_institutas).
Chad lithuania
Just try to figure out… Lithuania vs China… Okay, one more. Lithuania vs China…