The Lithuanian state emblem is seen above an entrance to its embassy in Beijing, China December 15, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
December 16, 2021
By Gabriel Crossley
BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that concerns over the safety of Lithuanian diplomats in China were groundless, a day after the country’s diplomatic delegation and their dependents left China in a hastily arranged departure https://www.reuters.com/world/china/lithuanias-diplomatic-delegation-china-leaves-beijing-2021-12-15.
Claims that Lithuanian diplomats feared for their personal safety, or that China forbade its citizens from working at the country’s office, are “purely fictitious,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular daily briefing.
Lithuanian authorities said on Wednesday they had summoned their top diplomat back from China for “consultations” and that the embassy would operate remotely for the time being.
Beijing downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania last month after Taiwan opened a representative office in the Baltic state’s capital.
Like most countries, Lithuania has formal relations with China and not self-ruled and democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory.
On Wednesday, a group of 19 people comprising embassy personnel and dependents left Beijing en route to Paris, a diplomatic source told Reuters. Another diplomat had called their departure a response to “intimidation”.
Speaking to reporters in Vilnius, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said previously there had been uncertainty over the legal status of Lithuanian diplomats in China before their departure.
China had demanded Lithuania change the status of its Beijing embassy into a lesser charge d’affaires office. This would have mirrored the change China made to its own legation in Vilnius in response to the opening of Lithuania’s Taipei office.
“The Lithuanian side also never raised the issue of personal safety to China,” Wang said.
“If the Lithuanian side does not face reality, if it does not reflect and correct mistakes but instead shirks its own responsibility, then it will only challenge bilateral relations even more.”
(Reporting by Gabriel Crossley, Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Michael Perry)
Source: One America News Network
