Until a few years ago, Lithuania had been pursuing pro-China diplomacy.
2022/2/2
The following is from a particular feature article on Japan-Taiwan relations in the monthly magazine "Sound Argument," released yesterday.
It opens with an article by Ms. Mina Mitsui, the Paris bureau chief of the Sankei Shimbun.
She is a real woman journalist.
Learn from Lithuania, a country that turned pro-Taiwan
Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states of the former Soviet Union, has adopted a pro-Taiwan policy and confronts China head-on.
Last fall, when Lithuania approved the establishment of a representative office bearing the name "Taiwan," China fiercely criticized it as a violation of the "One China" policy. Change the name.
The U.S. and Europe have announced their support for Lithuania, and the struggle of the small country has now become a touchstone for the democratic circle to confront the authoritarian state.
What is happening in Lithuania, more than 6,000 kilometers away from China?
I went there to find out.
A domino of threats
If a map of Lithuania immediately comes to your mind, you must be quite an internationalist.
The northern latitude is almost the same as the northernmost tip of Sakhalin.
It is located at the eastern edge of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (E.U.) and borders Belarus.
It has a population of about 2.8 million, less than that of Ibaraki Prefecture.
At the end of December last year, I visited Vilnius.
The day was as dark as evening, and the cold wind of 5 degrees below zero chapped my cheeks.
Walking along the snow-covered sidewalks, I saw the Parliament building across the square, nearly falling several times.
The vast, intimidating concrete structure is a remnant of the Cold War era.
It once housed the Lithuanian-Soviet Supreme Council and was called the "Soviet Palace.
I visited the Capitol to interview Mr. Matas Mardeykis, a member of the parliament who chairs the Committee on China-Taiwan Relations.
Mr. Mardeykis is a member of the center-right "Fatherland Alliance," the first ruling party, and had just led a delegation of Baltic parliamentarians to Taiwan. It realized the commission after Mr. Mardeykis called on Latvian and Estonian lawmakers to join him.
There are ten participating lawmakers, including six from Lithuania's ruling and opposition parties.
Mr. Mardeykis is 41 years old.
He has a friendly smile, but his eyes are sharp behind his round glasses.
He seemed to be still reeling from the excitement of his visit to Taiwan and opened by saying, "Support for Taiwan is not just sympathy for a small island that China threatens. It is an issue that directly affects the security of our country," he said.
When it says "security," it is not assuming that China will fire missiles at Lithuania.
He is accusing China and Russia of being linked and threatening the democratic circle.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin exerts military and political pressure on Ukraine and Eastern Europe, Xi Jinping's administration is shaking up Taiwan in tandem.
Senator Mardeikis asserted, "This is not just a coincidence.
Russia remains the most significant threat to Lithuania even after the Soviet Union disappeared.
"During my visit to Taiwan, I held more than 30 meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen and senior government officials to hear about Taiwan's threats.
During my visit to Taiwan, I had more than 30 meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen and senior government officials to learn about Taiwan's threats, including cyber-attacks from China, the dissemination of disinformation, and military threats such as the intrusion of Chinese military aircraft into the air defense zone.
I was amazed at how similar Russia and China are in their methods of shaking up their democratic 'neighbors.'
Mr. Mardikis warned of a "domino effect" of Sino-Russian collaboration.
"The world is now divided into authoritarian nations such as China, Russia, and democracies. It is just as the world was once polarized into the U.S. and the Soviet Union. If democracy collapses somewhere, it will have a domino effect, and pressure will spread to other regions. If China crushes democracy in Taiwan, the impact will extend to small democracies in Eastern Europe, like our country. China and Russia are colluding to shake up their neighbors and see how the U.S. reacts. The democratic circles must unite to help Taiwan."
Lithuania is bordered on the west by the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
The Belarusian border on the east is only 20 kilometers away from the parliament building.
On the interview day, Belarus sent Middle Eastern migrants to the Lithuanian border to encourage a border breach.
Although Lithuania is a small country, it is susceptible to security issues.
In the background, there is a history of hardship. In the Middle Ages, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania prospered as one of the most powerful countries in Europe, but the Russian Empire annexed it at the end of the 18th century.
Lithuania achieved its long-cherished independence at the end of World War I, only to be invaded by the Soviet Union about 20 years later.
It is now a member of NATO, but in 2015, in response to the growing threat from Russia, it reinstated the conscription system that it had abolished.
As for China, the Ministry of Defense warned in its 2019 report that espionage is growing.
It said that the small country of Lithuania is being used as a base for collecting classified information for NATO and the E.U.
Furthermore, last September, the Ministry of Defense issued an unprecedented recommendation to its citizens, telling them not to use Chinese smartphones and destroy those who own them.
It warned that the products of Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi had built-in detection functions for terms such as "Long Live Taiwan Independence" and "Free Tibet" and could be remotely controlled.
A sense of crisis over the U.S.'s "departure" from Europe is at the root of Lithuania's pro-Taiwan policy.
The U.S., an ally of NATO, has shifted its focus to Asia to concentrate on strategic competition with China.
For this reason, France and Germany on the European side are committed to Europe's security. Still, Lithuania's, the United States, and Europe's division is a nightmare scenario.
By appealing that "the crisis between Russia and China is one" through support for Taiwan, Lithuania's aim to hold the U.S.-European alliance together is transparent.
Mr. Mardikis's parents are economists, and he served as a member of the European Parliament after Lithuania acceded to the E.U.
It instilled the firm belief that the nation's fate depended on the U.S.-European alliance in him from childhood.
The Spirit of Anti-Communism
In Japan, the mention of Lithuania probably reminds many of Chiune Sugihara, the diplomat who issued the "Visa for Life" to Jewish refugees.
Sugihara was posted to the Lithuanian consulate in 1939 and was forced to leave after only one year.
The Soviet Union annexed Lithuania in 1940 under the secret protocol of the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era, Lithuania was forced into communism and Russian education for half a century and trampled on nationalism.
The humiliating experience is still engraved in the minds of the people.
Taiwan's population is nine times larger than Lithuania's, and its Gross Regional Product (GRP) is 11 times more prominent. Still, the Lithuanian people strongly sympathize with the "small democracy" that fights against the Communist Party, which is the foundation of their pro-Taiwan policy.
Dvirė Shakalien is a good example. She belongs to the center-left opposition party and is a parliamentary rival of Mr. Mardikis.
Still, they are comrades in pro-Taiwanese policies, and she participated in a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan.
She is now 43 years old, with blond hair and a smile, but when she talks about China, her face turns grim.
"I grew up hearing about the horrors of Soviet oppression from my grandparents. The scary thing about communism is that it seeks to expand its power, crush humanity, and eradicate those who rebel against it. So we can't just sit back and watch the Chinese Communist Party intimidate Taiwan."
Senator Shakalien's grandfather refused to serve in the Red Army and forced labor in Siberia.
Her grandmother was also branded a dissident and sent to Siberia.
Her brothers slipped up and spoke ill of the Soviet Union, and someone told them, and they were arrested.
When I was 11 years old, it declared independence.
I will never forget my grandfather shedding tears like a child, saying, 'It's like a dream; my wish is finally coming true."
During high school, Ms. Shakalien studied in the United States and inhaled the wind of liberalism.
After graduating from university, she worked for a government-affiliated human rights organization.
Since becoming a Diet member, she has been calling for human rights diplomacy.
Last May, when the Lithuanian Parliament adopted a resolution calling for an investigation of genocide in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, she was the proponent of the solution.
Ties to Tibet
Until a few years ago, Lithuania had been pursuing pro-China diplomacy.
It has participated in the 17 plus 1 economic cooperation framework between China and 17 Eastern European countries yearly since it held the first summit in Warsaw in 2012.
It has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China on the "One Belt, One Road" initiative.
The honeymoon relationship took a turn when an "incident" occurred in August 2019.
Konstantinos Andriyauskas, an associate professor at the University of Vilnius, said, "The Chinese embassy blocked a public rally in support of democracy in Hong Kong. The impact on the people was huge," he said.
The incident took place in front of the Parliament building in Vilnius.
At that time, democratization demand demonstrations were intensifying in Hong Kong, and on that day, Vilnius citizens were gathering in the square with the flags of Hong Kong and Tibet.
Suddenly, a group of more than a dozen Chinese people, holding up a red Chinese flag, burst in and shouted, "Hong Kong belongs to China forever.
When the rally participants were startled and tried to take pictures of the Chinese group with their smartphones, the Chinese grabbed them.
The incident was reported on television nationwide.
The Chinese embassy initially denied any involvement.
However, an investigative report by a T.V. station revealed that the Chinese ambassador to Lithuania was near the scene.
It also discovered that a car with diplomatic plates carried Chinese flags and distributed them to Chinese students.
The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the Chinese ambassador and protested directly.
About 500 Chinese people are living in Lithuania.
The way the foreign embassies used their organizational networks to intervene in foreign countries was like the Soviet Union of old.
At the end of the year, there was another uproar.
A female Chinese tourist visiting Lithuania acted in a way that trampled on the pro-democracy movement, and it broadcasted the video of her act on the Internet.
At a memorial site called "Hill of Crosses" west of Vilnius, the woman found a 30-centimeter cross with the words "Freedom for Hong Kong" written on it, pulled it out, and threw it away, laughing and saying, "They say they are Hong Kong people."
There was so much outrage in Lithuania that the police searched to identify the woman.
The Hill of Crosses is called the "national sanctuary" in Lithuania.
It is about 200 kilometers west of Vilnius.
As I drove through the open fields, black hills suddenly appeared.
You can see over 100,000 crosses of all sizes as you approach the hill.
It is said that it began in the 19th century when it uprised in imperial Russia and brought a cross in memory of the victims who were killed. During the Soviet era, the bereaved families of political prisoners sent to Siberia visited.
The Soviets bulldozed the site many times, but the silent resistance movement of the crosses continued.
It is a place where it can feel the resentment of the "oppressed people."
The barbaric act of the Chinese woman was seen as an insult not only to Hong Kong but also to Lithuania.
Initially, Lithuania did not have strong ties with Taiwan.
The Taipei Representative Office, the representative office of Taiwanese authorities in the Baltic States, is in Latvia. Many of its citizens have yet to learn the difference between Taiwan and Hong Kong.
On the other hand, for the past 30 years, Tibet and Lithuania have nurtured a bond as "people oppressed by a great power."
It all started in 1990 when Lithuania declared the restoration of its independence from the Soviet Union.
The Dalai Lama, the supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism, sent a message to the leader of the independence movement, Vytautas Landsbergis (later Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament), encouraging "nonviolent resistance."
It was the first declaration of independence in the Soviet zone, and at first, none of the countries recognized it.
The Dalai Lama had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and the Lithuanians, who had been isolated and helpless, were greatly encouraged.
In 1991, when independence became a reality with the recognition of the U.S. and Europe, the Dalai Lama visited the parliament building in Vilnius to honor the leaders of independence.
Because of this historical friendship, Lithuania has accepted the Dalai Lama's visits even amid its pro-China policy.
In Vilnius, there is even a park commemorating the support for Tibet.
As China increased its oppression and intimidation of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan, it was only natural that people began to look at China more coldly.
When I visited the Taiwan Representative Office established in Vilnius and spoke with Representative Huang Jun-yao, he smiled and said, "I was surprised to hear people repeatedly calling out to me on the street, saying, 'Hang in there.
The 89-year-old independence leader, Mr. Landsbergis, also visited the representative office for encouragement.
Representative Huang is a well-known figure in Lithuania.
One of the reasons for Lithuania's move away from China is that the benefits of the One Belt, One Road initiative have been disappointing.
China accounts for only about 1% of Lithuania's total exports.
Most of these are wooden furniture and copper products.
It is unsurprising that Taiwan's high-tech industries, such as semiconductors, are attractive to Lithuania.
This article continues.
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