Three Chinese diplomats get kicked out of Lithuania after breaking rules
Lithuania orders three Chinese diplomatic staff to pack their bags due to breaking international laws. This move adds more tension to already-cold relations between these two nations
Lithuanias foreign ministry made a bold-move today‚ kicking out three staff members from Chinas representative office (a special type of diplomatic mission) for breaking international rules
The ministry pointed to problems with the Vienna Convention and local laws but didnt share more details about what exactly went wrong. These chinese diplomats now have to leave the baltic country within 7 days; no response came from the chinese office when asked to comment
The relationship between these countries has been ice-cold since about 3 years ago when Lithuania let Taiwan open its quasi-embassy. After that China made things hard for Lithuania and pushed big companies to cut ties with this small EU nation of almost 3 million people
Recent events made things even more complicated:
- Counter-intelligence chief warned about possible chinese election meddling back in spring
- A chinese ship might have damaged undersea cables near Lithuania
- China already lowered its diplomatic presence in the country
The baltic nation which is part of EU and NATO – stands firm in its decision despite being way smaller than its asian counterpart
