Beijing accuses US of inciting Lithuania over Taiwan

Beijing on Monday accused Washington of inciting Lithuania to “contain China” in a feud over the standing of self-ruled Taiwan after US officers expressed help for the European Union-member nation within the face of Chinese financial stress.
Lithuania is the most recent flashpoint in China’s marketing campaign to stress corporations and international governments to undertake its positions on Taiwan, Tibet and different delicate points.

“The United States has instigated the Lithuanian authorities to undermine the one-China principle’,” mentioned a international ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. “It has supported, aided and abetted them in going further down the wrong path to achieve its political calculations to contain China.”

American and Lithuanian officers say China has blocked imports from the northern European nation because the Taiwanese authorities was allowed to open a commerce workplace there underneath the identify Taiwan.

In a telephone name final week, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai expressed “strong support” to a European official for Lithuania “in the face of economic coercion”, Tai’s workplace mentioned in on its web site.
Taiwan and China have been dominated individually since splitting amid civil struggle in 1949. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party by no means has managed the island however claims it as a part of Chinese territory and threatens to invade.

The US and most different governments, together with Lithuania, have diplomatic relations solely with Beijing however keep industrial and casual political ties with Taiwan’s democratically elected authorities. Most governments acquiesce to Chinese stress by requiring Taiwanese entities to function underneath the identify Chinese Taipei.
Beijing retaliated for Lithuania’s transfer by expelling the Lithuanian ambassador. Lithuania has closed its embassy in Beijing.