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VILNIUS, Lithuania — It’s never been a secret that China tightly controlled what its people could read and write on their mobile phones. But authorities in Lithuania were shocked when they discovered that a popular Chinese-made mobile phone sold in the Baltic country, despite being dormant, had a hidden feature: a censorship record of 449 terms banned by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Lithuanian government has angered China by advising officials to use phones quickly – and this isn’t the first time. Lithuania has also embraced Taiwan, a vibrant democracy that Beijing sees as a renegade province, and withdrew from a Chinese-led regional forum it despised as divisive for the European Union.
Enraged, Beijing recalled its ambassador, halting a Chinese cargo train’s travels to the country, and making it nearly impossible for many Lithuanian exporters to sell their goods in China. Chinese state media attacked Lithuania, mocking its small size and accusing it of being an “anti-Chinese vanguard” in Europe.
On the geopolitical battlefield, Lithuania and China are not quite a fair fight – a small Baltic nation of less than 3 million inhabitants against a rising superpower of 1.4 billion. The Lithuanian army has no tanks or warplanes, and its economy is 270 times smaller than China’s.
But surprisingly, Lithuania has proven that even small countries can be a headache for a superpower, especially China, whose diplomats seem determined to draw other nations into their lines. Indeed, Lithuania, which does very little trade with China, has stinked enough as its other members of the European Union are expected to discuss the situation at a meeting next week. Nothing could be worse for Beijing than for other countries to follow the example of Lithuania.
For Lithuania, threats and tantrums from Beijing did not weaken the government’s resolve, partly because China had little influence over it. Foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in an interview that the country has a “values-based foreign policy” that is “supporting people who support democratic movements”.
Other European countries that profess a commitment to democratic values have rarely acted on these values in their relations with China. But Mr. Landsbergis’ party took the action as part of its appeal to local voters: Last year’s election manifesto included a promise to “protect the value backbone” in foreign policy with “countries like China”.
Lithuania’s small size has “made us an easy target” for China, the foreign minister complained, because “his calculations are that it’s good to pick enemies far, far, far below your size, draw them into the warring circle, and then defeat them.” pulp.”
Eager to avoid being beaten, Mr. Landsbergis visited Washington this month and Met with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, He promised “armored US support to Lithuania in the face of the attempted pressure from the People’s Republic of China”.
Despite its meager size, Lithuania is surprisingly large in Chinese calculations, partly playing the role of a transit corridor for trains carrying goods from China to Europe, said Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing.
It also draws the attention of China for its extreme role in the collapse of the Soviet Union; this is a drama that China is working on in hopes of fending off similar centrifugal forces in its own country. In 1990, Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare its independence from Moscow.
“China sees Lithuania as a museum to save itself from a Soviet-like collapse,” Mr. Wu said.
The friction between the two countries comes from many sources, including Taiwan’s attempt to garner political support and last year’s Lithuanian elections, which put Mr. about defending human rights.
But it also reflects a broader backlash against China’s aggressive European-wide “wolf warrior” diplomacy and frustration with the rise of Chinese exports, which far outstripped European imports.
In recent years, China has caused resentment to many in Lithuania with its hectoring behavior, which reminds many of Moscow’s past bullying. In 2019, Chinese diplomats staged a war-fighting protest against a rally held by Lithuanian citizens in support of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Chinese intervention led to riots in Vilnius’ Cathedral Square.
“This approach does not make any friends for China,” said Gintaras Steponavicius, a former legislator who helped found the Taiwan Forum, a lobby group. “We’re not used to being told how to act, even by a superpower.”
Fed up with pressure from Beijing, prominent politicians joined a Taiwan friendship group in Parliament and attended a Taiwan national day celebration in Vilnius last October.
Not everyone supports the government’s policy. Linas Linkevicius, a former foreign minister, He notes that Lithuania already has daggers drawn from Russia and neighboring Belarus, where exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya operates from Vilnius.
“We are exposed on so many fronts,” he said.
public opinion polls by European Council on Foreign Relations It shows that most Europeans do not want a new Cold War between the US and China. But they are also showing increased vigilance towards China.
“There is a general change in mood,” said Frank Juris, a researcher at the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute. Follows Chinese activities in Europe. “Promises have not been fulfilled and countries are tired of being constantly threatened with whips.”
This whip is now being dealt harshly against Lithuania, a member of the European Union and NATO.
Beijing was particularly upset when Lithuania announced in July that it had accepted Taiwan’s request to open a “Taiwan representative office” in Vilnius.
China’s foreign ministry accused Lithuania of crossing the “red line”. and urged him to “immediately correct his wrong decision” and “not go any further on the wrong path”.
Many countries, including Germany and neighboring Latvia, have similar Taiwan offices, but to avoid angering Beijing, they officially represent Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, not Taiwan itself.
And in May, Lithuania withdrew from a diplomatic forum that brought together China and 17 countries in Eastern and Central Europe, supporting Mr. Xi’s Belt and Road initiative, a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure program.
From China’s point of view, a report was released last week on Chinese-made mobile phones. By the Cyber Security Center of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense There was another provocation. The secret registry the center found allows detection and censorship of phrases such as “student movement”, “Taiwan independence” and “dictatorship”.
NS The blacklist, which is automatically updated to reflect the evolving concerns of the Communist Party, is dormant on phones exported to Europe, but the disabled censorship tool can be activated in China with a flick of a button, according to the cybercentre.
Margiris Abukevicius, deputy defense secretary for cybersecurity, said the logbook was “shocking and very worrying”.
Xiaomi, the maker of the Chinese phones in question, says its devices “do not censor communications”.
In addition to telling government departments to put their phones down, Mr Abukevicius said in an interview that casual users should decide “on their own risk appetite”.
The Global Times, a nationalist news outlet controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, mocked the Lithuanian report as a “new trick” by a minor “pawn” in Washington’s anti-Chinese agenda.
China has steadily increased the pressure on Lithuania by recalling its ambassador in Vilnius last month and urging the Lithuanian ambassador in Beijing to go home. It has stopped a regular cargo train bound for Lithuania, but still allows other trains to pass through the Baltic country full of Chinese goods bound for Germany.
Although China has not announced any official sanctions, it has added bureaucracy to prevent Lithuanian exporters from selling goods in China.
Lithuanian economy minister Ausrine Armonaite downplayed the damage, noting that Lithuania’s exports to China account for only 1 percent of total exports. Losing it, he said, “isn’t very harmful.”
A bigger blow, according to business leaders, was the interruption in the supply of Chinese-made glass, electronic components and other products needed by Lithuanian manufacturers. Last week, nearly a dozen companies relying on goods from China received nearly identical letters from Chinese suppliers alleging power cuts made it difficult to fulfill orders.
“They are very creative,” said Vidmantas Janulevicius, head of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, noting that the delays were “very precisely targeted.”
Laurynas Kasciunas, head of the national security and defense committee, said Lithuania had made a “clear geopolitical decision” to stand firmly for long-time allies the United States and other democracies. “Everyone here agrees on that. We’re all very anti-communist Chinese. It’s in our DNA.”
Tomas Dapkus in Vilnius, Monika Pronczuk and Claire Fu in Brussels contributed to the reporting
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