China has blocked all imports from Lithuania and has ordered multinational companies to sever ties with the Baltic country or face being shut out of the Chinese market.
The extraordinary sanctions, which amount to a full economic boycott of Lithuania, are in retaliation for the country’s decision to allow Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital, Vilnius.
Taiwan has other offices in Europe and the United States, but they use the name of its capital city, Taipei, due to the host countries’ preference to avoid any semblance of treating Taiwan as a separate country. Beijing insists that the democratically self-ruled island is a part of the territory of the communist People’s Republic of China and has no right to the trappings of a state.
