Lithuania's act of bad faith chased by its lies: China Daily editorial

Lithuania is alleging that it was China that expelled its diplomats from its chargé d'affaires in Beijing earlier this month.

That is pure defamation, as it was the Lithuanian foreign ministry that recalled its diplomats on Dec 15 for "consultations", without notifying its Chinese counterpart.

Lithuania has claimed that it did not receive a response from China to its application to extend the validity period for its diplomats in Beijing, a claim that Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin directly denied, saying that the Chinese Foreign Ministry has never received any such application.

That little trick was still not enough for Vilnius. On the basis of that lie, it has told a second, saying that the decision to pull its diplomats back — which ironically belies the third that Beijing expelled them — is "due to intimidation and safety considerations".

As Vilnius seems intent on demonstrating, it always takes new lies to cover up old ones. Thus its diplomats' "exodus" is being accompanied by one lie after another. Something Vilnius seems to have committed itself to the moment it decided to act as Washington's pawn in challenging Beijing over the Taiwan question earlier this year.

Despite Beijing's strong opposition, Lithuania allowed Taipei to set up a "Taiwan Representative Office" in its capital in November. In doing so, Vilnius openly supported the false impression that the Democratic Progressive Party of the island is trying to create that there is "one China and one Taiwan".

Since upholding the one-China principle is the premise for a country to have diplomatic relations with China, Beijing has downgraded its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the chargé d'affaires level. This is entirely legitimate and reasonable.

As such, China asked Lithuania to reapply for identification cards for its diplomats and administrative and technical personnel in China. This is a normal procedure of China's support for and management of foreign missions in the country, which complies with international law and common practice.

As for Lithuania's supposed "safety considerations", China unswervingly protects the security and lawful rights of all diplomatic missions in China, including those from Lithuania, and their normal operation in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Being small is not an excuse for shameless impudence. China firmly opposes Lithuania's deeds and words. As a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, the international community should adopt an objective and just position and "refuse to buy Lithuania's one-sided story".

Lithuania cannot cover up its error no matter how many lies it tells.