Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian

China urges Lithuania to return to the right track of adhering to the one-China principle and accumulate conditions for the normalization of China-Lithuania relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Friday at a regular news briefing, when asked to comment on Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene's recent statement that her country's 2021 decision to host a "Taiwanese representative office" was a strategic mistake.

China's door to communication with Lithuania remains open. We hope that Lithuania can translate its willingness to improve bilateral ties into real actions and correct its wrongdoings at an early date, the spokesperson said. 

China's stance over the matter is very clear - it is the one who tied the bell that must untie it, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times. 

But Lithuania must learn the lesson that prioritizing demonstrations of loyalty to external forces can easily affect its own national interests, which comes with a very high cost, Li warned. "In the past, certain Lithuanian elites blindly pledged loyalty to external hegemonic powers, reducing themselves to vassals, tools, and accomplices, and this approach is untenable. Only by ensuring policy adjustments and maintaining autonomy will the ultimate beneficiaries be the Lithuanian people," Li said.

In a recent interview with the Baltic News Service (BNS), Ruginienė expressed regret over Lithuania's decision to allow a so-called Taiwanese representative office to open in Vilnius under the name "Taiwanese." She described the move as a strategic mistake, likening it to Lithuania having "jumped in front of a train and lost," according to a report from local media outlet LRT English on Tuesday.

In November 2021, the Lithuanian government reneged on the political commitments it made in the communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Lithuania, by endorsing "Taiwan independence." The Chinese side expressed strong dissatisfaction and lodged a solemn protest over this matter, announcing the downgrading of its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the level of chargé d'affaires.

Over the past four years, economic and trade relations between China and Lithuania have experienced a precipitous drop. Lithuania's exports to China have plummeted by more than 50 percent; pillar industries such as timber and dairy suffered heavy losses, with the century-old dairy company Rokiskio Suris also taking a hit; and the Baltic deep-water port of Klaipeda saw a sharp reduction in throughput due to the rerouting of China-Europe freight trains, Global Times editorial noted on Thursday.

This once again reveals to the international community that the DPP authorities deliberately mislead other countries, disrupt international perception, and confuse understandings of the one-China principle which underpins the stability of international relations, and their hideous countenance is plain for all to see, Li noted. 

They are veritable destroyers of regional order and authentic sources of disturbance to peace and stability, Li said, and countries around the world should remain vigilant toward this, firmly resisting and opposing it.