Little Lithuania — population less than 3 million — has been taking a trade battering from China, but it is becoming a test case on whether smaller countries can be persuaded to resist Beijing’s economic coercion.
Lithuania’s pushback on the Asian giant is viewed as an indication of whether global Davids, backed by Western powers, might find enough strength to withstand the Goliath’s economic pressure to force compliance with Chinese foreign policy goals.
Tensions are coming to a head over the Baltic country’s decision last year to allow Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in its capital, Vilnius, and to call it a “Taiwanese Representative Office” — rather than the less-controversial “Taipei Office” nomenclature used by most countries.
