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Beijing on Monday accused Washington of inciting Lithuania to “comprise China in a feud over the standing of self-ruled Taiwan after U.S. officers expressed help for the European Union-member nation within the face of Chinese language financial strain.
Lithuania is the newest flashpoint in China’s marketing campaign to strain firms and overseas governments to undertake its positions on Taiwan, Tibet and different delicate points.
“America has instigated the Lithuanian authorities to undermine the ‘one-China precept’,” stated a overseas ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin. “It has supported, aided and abetted them in going additional down the improper path to realize its political calculations to comprise China.”
American and Lithuanian officers say China has blocked imports from the northern European nation for the reason that Taiwanese authorities was allowed to open a commerce workplace there underneath the identify Taiwan.
In a cellphone name final week, U.S. Commerce Consultant Katherine Tai expressed “sturdy help” to a European official for Lithuania “within the face of financial coercion,” Tai’s workplace stated in on its web site.
Taiwan and China have been dominated individually since splitting amid civil warfare in 1949. The mainland’s ruling Communist Occasion by no means has managed the island however claims it as a part of Chinese language territory and threatens to invade.
The U.S. 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 language strain by requiring Taiwanese entities to function underneath the identify Chinese language Taipei.
Beijing retaliated for Lithuania’s transfer by expelling the Lithuanian ambassador. Lithuania has closed its embassy in Beijing.
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