The move enraged Beijing, which saw the use of “Taiwanese” – rather than Taipei – in the office’s name as a breach of its one-China principle.
“I believe that Lithuania really jumped in front of the train and lost,” Ruginiene was quoted as saying.
“It was probably a huge mistake on Lithuania’s part to think that if we offered something ourselves and were the first to do something, the world would suddenly appreciate it. Well, we tried in this case, we have the Taiwanese representative office, but the world did not appreciate it, no one appreciated it.”