China downgrades ties with Lithuania after Taiwan opens de facto embassy

Beijing: Furious over Lithuania for permitting Taiwan to open a representative office, China on Sunday downgraded diplomatic ties with it to the level of charge d'affaires, a move that could further damage Beijing's relations with the European Union, as the tiny Baltic nation with less than three million population is an influential member of the bloc.

There is only one China in the world and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The one-China principle is an overwhelming consensus of the international community, a widely-recognised norm governing international relations, and the political foundation for China and Lithuania to develop bilateral ties, it said.

Regrettably, Lithuania has chosen to ignore China's solemn position and to disregard the broader interests of bilateral ties and the basic norms governing international relations. It has allowed the establishment in Lithuania of the 'Representative Office' bearing the name of Taiwan, thus creating an egregious precedent in the world, the statement said.

The Chinese government, out of the need to safeguard national sovereignty and basic norms governing international relations, has no choice but to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the charge d'affaires level. The Lithuanian government must bear all the ensuing consequences, it said.

Charge d'affaires in diplomatic parlance means the embassy will be headed by the chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. China has already recalled its envoy from Lithuania's capital Vilnius.

"The downgrade means a serious setback in China-Lithuania diplomatic relations, as charge d'affaires does not have full authority compared with ambassadors. It indicates that the power of diplomats in both countries will be greatly limited and affected," Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the the

Global Times.

A similar decision could be traced back to as early as on May 5, 1981, when China downgraded the bilateral diplomatic ties to the charge d'affaires level with the Dutch government after the Netherlands approved the sale of a submarine to Taiwan.