{"id":70445,"date":"2022-02-14T13:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=70445"},"modified":"2022-02-14T14:16:23","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T03:16:23","slug":"democracies-work-on-collective-security-as-lithuania-stares-down-escalating-chinese-coercion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/democracies-work-on-collective-security-as-lithuania-stares-down-escalating-chinese-coercion\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracies work on collective security as Lithuania stares down escalating Chinese coercion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Three decades after gaining its independence from the USSR, Lithuania is again on the front lines of tension between the liberal democratic world and communist authoritarianism. This time, it\u2019s grappling with the People\u2019s Republic of China and faces intimidation using innovative economic statecraft rather than Soviet military force.<\/p>\n

The small Baltic state (population 2.8 million) has been targeted with some of the most extreme tactics yet seen in Beijing\u2019s\u00a0escalating use of coercive diplomacy. In its intimidation of Lithuania, China attempted to exploit the country\u2019s EU membership and economic dependence, which turned the issue into a dangerous political crisis for the young democracy.<\/p>\n

Lithuania\u2019s cardinal sin was allowing the opening of a \u2018Taiwanese representative office\u2019 in Vilnius that used the self-governed island\u2019s name rather than the \u2018Taipei\u2019 alternative palatable to Beijing. In response, Lithuania was effectively blocked as an importer when it was deleted from the list of countries of origin at customs in China\u2014a tactic not previously documented. Chinese exports to Lithuania have also been curbed and Chinese companies are cancelling orders from Lithuania.<\/p>\n

The critical development came in December, when multinational companies like\u00a0German car parts manufacturer Continental<\/a>\u00a0were threatened with import restrictions because their supply chains involved Lithuania.<\/p>\n

This experience with China\u2019s brand of coercive diplomacy\u2014generally directed at countries and companies for \u2018hurting the feelings of the Chinese people\u2019 with words or deeds\u2014was\u00a0the key reason for the visit to Australia\u00a0last week\u00a0by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. The issue is front of mind for like-minded governments looking to increase cooperation and bolster the liberal international order against authoritarian threats.<\/p>\n

\u2018For quite a while, Australia was one of the main examples when China was using economy and trade as a political instrument or one might say even as a political weapon,\u2019 Landsbergis said<\/a> in a joint press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on Wednesday. \u2018Now Lithuania joins this exclusive club.\u2019<\/p>\n

In\u00a0bilateral\u00a0discussions in Canberra, officials and experts heard that Lithuania\u2019s situation was economically and politically manageable while Beijing\u2019s tactics were contained to Lithuanian products. Chinese customs reported a 91% drop in trade from Lithuania in December 2021 compared to the year before, but the country sent only \u20ac300 million worth of products to China in 2020\u2014around 1% of total exports.<\/p>\n

Lithuania\u2019s problem became more severe\u00a0in December, however, when the threat was expanded to European corporations with contracts and operations in\u00a0the country. German companies like Volkswagen and Continental are heavily dependent on the Chinese market and are significant employers in Lithuania.<\/p>\n

China was evidently seeking to wedge Lithuania and have European partners pressure Vilnius to back down. These stakes might help explain why one poll in Lithuania indicated only\u00a013% support for the government\u2019s position<\/a>, and why President Gitanas Nauseda at one stage\u00a0distanced himself from the Taiwan office decision<\/a>, calling it a \u2018mistake\u2019.<\/p>\n

The outreach to Taiwan was always going to provoke the Chinese government, which is committed to restricting the island\u2019s international engagement. The move also came after other foreign policy developments in Lithuania that defied China, including Vilnius\u2019s withdrawal from the 17+1 forum with central and eastern European states.<\/p>\n

In January, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian\u00a0said Lithuania was holding EU\u2013China relations hostage<\/a>\u00a0and urged the bloc to \u2018abide by the one China principle and the solemn commitment it made upon the establishment of China\u2013EU diplomatic relations\u2019.<\/p>\n

Beijing hasn\u2019t succeeded in changing policy in Vilnius.\u00a0\u2019Lithuania is not backing down,\u2019 Landsbergis told the National Press Club on Thursday. Facing a growing crisis at the end of 2021, the Lithuanian government feels it has rallied domestic political players behind its policy. Engagement with EU partners, especially Germany, has averted any significant public divisions, even if there was anxiety in some corners.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think that there is waking up [to the challenge], but I also think there is a very clear trend not to see certain examples,\u2019 Landsbergis told\u00a0his Canberra audience. \u2018And I know that there was a sentiment among some institutions that were really expecting Lithuania not to speak up.\u2019<\/p>\n

The full effect of the EU-wide ultimatum on existing and future investments in Lithuania might not be apparent for some time, and the pain could yet grow for the country’s suppliers and workers.<\/p>\n

Whatever the internal misgivings, the EU has come to Lithuania\u2019s aid, announcing in January that it would\u00a0take action in the World Trade Organization<\/a>. European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said China\u2019s actions were a threat to the integrity of the EU single market.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2014which has launched its own WTO litigation over Chinese strikes on wine and barley\u2014has shown solidarity by requesting to join the Lithuanian consultations as an interested third party, along with the US, UK, Canada, Japan and Taiwan.<\/p>\n

However, while WTO dispute processes are worthwhile for accountability, they are seen by many as inadequate for remedying cases of coercion. The proceedings are drawn out and, under the trade court\u2019s standards, it\u2019s difficult to prove that \u2018grey zone\u2019 tactics are in breach of the rules. So countries are looking for new ways to provide collective security and deter Chinese coercion.<\/p>\n

The European Commission has\u00a0proposed a country-agnostic \u2018anti-coercion instrument\u2019<\/a>\u00a0that would assess possible economic coercion, facilitate engagement with the perpetrator, and enable countermeasures like retaliatory trade restrictions.<\/p>\n

In the US, there is a bipartisan congressional effort to\u00a0establish a \u2018countering economic coercion task force\u2019<\/a>\u00a0to explore how to better work with allies to respond to coercive measures and impose costs on aggressors.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s a growing body of literature on this geoeconomic issue from experts in the US, Europe and Australia, there remains a need to substantively advance the global discussion with comprehensive analysis of the concept, intent, methods and impact of coercive diplomacy and the available policy responses. To that end, ASPI has launched a major project on the issue,\u00a0building on a\u00a02020 report that documented the growing use of coercive<\/a>\u00a0tactics.<\/p>\n

The solutions to the problem aren\u2019t simple. The varying political, economic and strategic circumstances facing different countries make practical, coalition-based action difficult. How do countries that value open trade and free markets intervene effectively without undermining competition and enterprise? Democratic states are also bound by legal frameworks in ways authoritarian regimes are not. For any credible strategy, US partners might need assurance of Washington\u2019s commitment to multilateralism and rules-based global trade.<\/p>\n

One idea that has fans in Canberra and Washington is a collective economic security pact that, akin to NATO\u2019s Article 5, treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. That could involve a funding pool to assist affected industries\u2014allowing countries to absorb and neuter coercive strikes\u2014and impose costs on the aggressor. But the proposal is legally and politically underdeveloped.<\/p>\n

Some countries that are more economically exposed to China\u2014even if they are quietly anxious\u2014might be wary of joining a vanguard action that risks blowback. On the other hand, they won\u2019t want to miss out on the collective support that could shield them from future harm.<\/p>\n

Lithuania finds itself feeling the heat of twin threats to the liberal order as Russia, the more familiar challenge for the Baltic state, continues to mass forces on the Ukrainian border. Landsbergis\u2014a 40-year-old career diplomat, leader of the conservative Homeland Union party and grandson of a famous Lithuanian independence leader\u2014links China\u2019s and Russia\u2019s actions as both fundamentally testing the rules-based international order, whichever region they\u2019re concentrated in. China\u2019s coercive tactics, he says, might have a new label but they resemble longstanding Russian intimidation.<\/p>\n

\u2018It turned out that Lithuania is not an easy country to bully,\u2019 Landsbergis said on Thursday. \u2018Maybe because we have met some bullies before.\u2019<\/p>\n

What of China\u2019s intent? It can certainly punish countries that step out of line and deter others from following suit\u2014\u2018kill the chicken to scare the monkey\u2019<\/a>, states the Chinese idiom. But does it genuinely still expect to successfully \u2018coerce\u2019 target countries into altering policies when this has rarely panned out? Generally, the tactics have served to harden global opinion towards China and encourage trade diversification.<\/p>\n

After the latest meeting of Quad foreign ministers\u2014which prompted criticism from Beijing that the security dialogue is a \u2018tool to contain China\u2019\u2014Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Scott Morrison hardened his rhetoric, saying a Russian and Chinese \u2018coalition of autocracies\u2019 was seeking to bully and coerce other countries.<\/p>\n

In Lithuania\u2019s case,\u00a0if Beijing thought it could exploit the EU\u2019s economic instincts to force submission on a security issue, that looks like a\u00a0miscalculation.\u00a0Europe has been put on notice, however, and China has again raised the stakes in its challenge to the global order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three decades after gaining its independence from the USSR, Lithuania is again on the front lines of tension between the liberal democratic world and communist authoritarianism. 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