According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Lithuania, the country declared three Chinese embassy staff as personae non grata and gave them three weeks to leave the country. The ministry based its decision on the Vienna Convention and Lithuanian legislation but provided no further details.
Even before the expulsion, the relations between China and Lithuania were tense. Two main reasons thereof are the support of Taiwan and the suspected involvement of a Chinese ship in the damage of sea cables. The latter refers to the severing of two Baltic Sea telecommunications cables, including one connecting the Swedish island Gotland and Lithuania, at the start of November. The suspicions over Chinese involvement are based on the route of a Chinese ship, Yi Peng 3 – according to the tracking sites, the ship sailed over the cables around the time of the damage. Finland, Sweden, and Lithuania started the investigation into the severing of the cables as a joint team, with the assistance of Eurojust, the European Union criminal law cooperation agency.
According to the statement made by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, China strongly condemns and opposes the decision made by Lithuania and reserves the right to implement countermeasures. The Ministry underlines that Lithuania has presented no reasoning for deeming Chinese staff unwelcome. The subject of Taiwan is discussed in the same statement as well and mentions the „serious violation of the One-China principle“ by Lithuania, which, according to the Ministry, created challenges in Chinese-Lithuanian relations. For context, the mentioned „violation“ refers to allowing the creation of a De Facto Taiwanese embassy in Lithuania.
