TAIWAN BUYS LITHUANIAN LIQUOR, China keeps fuming like a lost dragon
China downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania last month after the opening of a representative office by Taiwan in Vilnius under its own name
China has been claiming the Republic of Taiwan a democratically governed Country as its own territory since 1949. Behaving like a mad dictator, China has in the past two years also stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its claims on Taiwan. As if seeing its angers, other will just give in !This ludicrous claim has fueled anger not only in Taipei but also in entire Indo Pacific, Asia and now even in Europe. It has led to deep deep concern in New Delhi, Tokyo, Canberra and Washington.
While others are contemplating various course of Action, Lithuania a vey small country in Europe, earlier part of Soviet Union, decided to take on the Big Bully China. It established diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. So in anger China has taken certain diplomatic actions. China downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania last month after the opening of a representative office by Taiwan in Vilnius under its own name. Next China has virtually declared a Trade War on Lithuania, in order to punish it.
China has told multinational companies to sever ties with Lithuania or face being shut out of the Chinese market, and the Asian economic power has told Continental AG, the German car tyres and parts maker, to stop using parts made in Lithuania.
Several companies and business leaders in Lithuania, an EU member state, complained last month that China was blocking their exports by not clearing customs for their products.
There were “many cases in which imports from Lithuania and the EU are being stopped at Chinese ports and the number is increasing daily”, Valdis Dombrovskis said in late December.
Recently a shipment of Rum from Lithuania was stopped by the Chinese custom on some pretext. So a Taiwanese government-owned liquor firm has bought rum from Lithuania to help the country in dodging a possible Chinese customs block. Known as Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp, the firm purchased 20,400 bottles of Lithuanian rum that China refused to allow into the country to show support for the Baltic nation amid diplomatic tensions.
The company said in a statement, “TTL stood up at the right time, purchased the rum, and brought it to Taiwan.”
“Lithuania supports us and we support Lithuania – TTL calls for a toast to that,” it added.
The shipment is set to arrive on the island later this month and the bottles will be repackaged before hitting the market.
In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, “I can tell you that the Taiwan authorities’ attempt to maintain their space for Taiwan independence activities by dollar diplomacy is doomed to be in vain.”
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said, “It is important that like-minded countries which share respect to international rules must be in solidarity in face of economic pressure. We must continue to share information and coordinate our actions inside the EU and with US and with democratic states in Indian-Pacific ocean region.”
The EU trade commissioner said Lithuania’s claims about the Chinese blockade were verified and the commission was receiving reports from other member countries about blocked goods that contained parts from Lithuania. He said the commission was using political and diplomatic channels to try to resolve the dispute.
