Beijing wants to kill the chicken to scare the monkey

Big China is small.

Small Lithuania is Big, Lithuanians say.

With a population of 2.8 million, they became the main enemy of the world's second economy — Beijing in the EU, having "earned" the blockade in several decades.

The final straw was one word in the name of the representative office, Taiwan, instead of the peace-making Taipei.

But the story is actually longer.

“The final straw was one word in the name of the representative office, Taiwan, instead of the peace-making Taipei”

More than 20 years ago, Vytautas Landsbergis, the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, during a visit to Beijing, started a conversation about Tibet and human rights with the then prime minister of China . The conversation was so unacceptable that the communist did not finish his dessert and left the hall with the rest of the entourage.

Then, 20 years later, his grandson Gabrielius Landsbergis, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, met with the Chinese delegation at the Lithuanian airport. They refused to continue their visit and leave the airport because on that day the Lithuanian parliament was holding an international meeting on the crimes of communism.

Lithuania built its economy in such a way that the PRC's investments in the country at the time of the blockade amounted to EUR 4 million. While Lithuania's investments in China are 40.

Beijing has been seeking access to the Lithuanian port for many years. But the country's investment screening legislation deemed such participation too risky for national security.

Lithuania donated vaccines to Taiwan, offered humanitarian visas to Hong Kong residents and was the first in the EU to sound the alarm about the threat of Xiaomi phones.

“"Wandel durch Handel", the German formula for change through trade, does not work.  When we face an era when geopolitical considerations come to the fore, economic interpenetration can become a burden that can be exploited, instrumentalized or even weaponized,” Lithuania's Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas said.

“Trade depends not only on the size of the country. Even a small country like Lithuania can become a big player like Singapore and the Netherlands.”

Lithuanian President Nausėda says that “China has been interested in investing more in our infrastructure and other sectors that are sensitive to national security. But we have a national system of vetting such strategic investments.”

“Trade depends not only on the size of the country. Even a small country like Lithuania can become a big player like Singapore and the Netherlands,” he added.

And Lithuania is really big now. And the investments they receive from the US and Taiwan have already many times exceeded what Beijing could even theoretically provide in the maximum possible format of cooperation, which would leave Vilnius neither independence nor "kidneys".

“Beijing wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, as the Chinese proverb says. But everyone is alive and not scared.”

Perseverance and commitment to the values ​​of Vilnius move mountains. This week, Brussels appealed to the WTO with a statement regarding the creation of a judicial panel in the case against China for the anti-Lithuanian blockade.

This is a difficult path of a year + half a year of appeal. And with a completely non-guaranteed result, given the standards of evidence of the WTO commission. But it is an important precedent.

Beijing wanted to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, as the Chinese proverb says. But everyone is alive and not scared. And Brussels is on the verge of banning Chinese border scanners and joining US export control measures for chips in addition to 5G.

About the author: Ahiia Zahrebelska, Ukrainian lawyer, state representative of  Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee (2015–2019).

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.