After the Lithuanian diplomatic delegation hurriedly left China, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States stated on Wednesday (December 15) that Taiwan will deepen its economic relations with Lithuania in a “circle of goodwill” because it faces pressure from Beijing.
After Taiwan opened a representative office in the capital of the Baltic States, Beijing lowered its relations with Lithuania in November. Diplomatic sources told Reuters that 19 Lithuanian embassy staff and their families had left Beijing on Wednesday in response to “intimidation.”
“Unfortunately, their diplomats were intimidated,” Taiwan’s representative in Washington, Xiao Biqing, told Reuters in an interview.
“We will do our best to deepen the economic chain and technical cooperation with Lithuania,” Xiao said. “From the perspective of our partnership with Lithuania, this is a virtuous circle of goodwill and mutual support.”
The Lithuanian authorities stated that the embassy will temporarily operate remotely.
They complained about China’s efforts to punish Lithuania, including after Vilnius decided to strengthen contacts with autonomous Taiwan, pressured multinational companies not to cooperate with Lithuanian companies. Beijing claims that Taiwan is a province.
Although it has no formal relationship with Taiwan, the United States is Taipei’s biggest supporter. As Beijing seeks to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, the administration of President Joe Biden has been seeking to open up more space for this democratically governed island.
When asked if Taiwan still wants the United States to allow its presence in Washington to be iconically upgraded from an economic and cultural office to a representative office in Taiwan, Xiao said: “We can become the hope and dream of many Taiwanese. Our normal and proprietary name is what we will continue to communicate with our American partners.”
Xiao said that the United States and Taiwan have improved Taiwan’s weapons procurement process in recent years, moving from less frequent large purchases to more regular announcements as part of their defense reforms to prevent China from taking military actions.
“What has happened in the past few years is that the United States reviews our needs on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, there is no intention to put everything into the political calendar or a convenient time,” Xiao said.
She said that this is not to reduce offense to Beijing. Beijing is asking Washington to stop selling weapons to Taiwan, but to respond to Taiwan’s needs more quickly.
“Given the ever-changing threat situation, and in the past few decades we would focus on patrols or capabilities in peacetime, I think we are now focusing on specific capabilities that can prevent actual invasions,” Xiao said.
Although Washington has increased its support for Taiwan, at Biden’s Democracy Summit last week, a video of Taiwan’s Minister Audrey Tang was cut because a map in her speech showed the relationship between Taiwan and China. The colors are different-this can be seen as inconsistent with Washington’s “One China” policy.
At the U.S. Democracy Summit, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs, Audrey Tang, was cut off by U.S. officials after showing a map depicting the island in a different color from China. pic.twitter.com/E9uM2QJrX2
-Sk Boz, PhD (@skbozphd) December 13, 2021
The government described this as a technical failure unrelated to policy, although sources told Reuters that U.S. officials had already taken this move in response to the introduction.
Xiao reiterated that the US government told Taiwan this was a “technical error” and added that after the incident, the US government had cooperated with the US government to upload Tang’s complete speech to the summit website.
