When growing up, “Polack” jokes were all the rage for a while. People would ask me if I were of Polish descent given my last name. I would answer no — that is for names ending in “ski” and not “sky.” I am Lithuanian. That was a made-up fable. Flash forward 40 years when a cousin located me after listening to the Dennis Prager radio show where I was a guest. We met up and he provided me with a complete family history showing my ancestors had come to America from a small town in Lithuania. My heritage was indeed validated after all. I currently could not be prouder to be from the great country of Lithuania.
That is because little Lithuania (with its three million residents) told China to take a long walk off a short pier. China has decided to try to crush Lithuania economically because it allowed Taiwan a representative office in their capital, Vilnius.
Because of their refusal to kowtow to China, the fascists who run China have blocked all imports from Lithuania. It gets worse. China is trying to crush Lithuania. Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mantas Adomenas, stated, “China has been sending messages to multinationals that if they use parts and supplies from Lithuania, the companies will no longer be allowed to sell to the Chinese market or get supplies from China. We have seen some companies cancel contracts with Lithuanian suppliers.”
One might think such an action is against the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. The WTO, where President Clinton supported China becoming a member, has once again proved their worthlessness by not stepping into stop this obviously unacceptable act by the Chinese.
If you are not aware, China is preying on smaller countries by using their economic might to crush any opposition to their plans and to assure non recognition that Taiwan even exists on the planet. They have really dug themselves into the Western Hemisphere unlike any country has since the Monroe Doctrine was issued in 1823.
The Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Panama stopped their recognition of Taiwan in favor of China. These three countries, which would have a greater affinity to Taiwan because of their size and desire to stay independent, have been bought off by China. These countries are just a few of the Western Hemisphere countries playing footsie with China. Other countries in Latin America like Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile, have close economic ties with China and would be pressured by the Chinese bullies to comply with their policy wishes.
This is what makes Lithuania’s stand more unique. The bigger question is what will the EU do? The EU did state they are launching an investigation into whether the WTO rules have been violated by China’s actions against a member state. It is yet to be seen whether Lithuania’s actions will cause a real rift between the EU and China. It will be a test of whether the EU leadership has a commitment to its member states or whether the larger EU members (France and Germany) are the unprincipled money-grubbing lackeys I have always thought them to be. At a recent meeting of the 27 members, the issue was not even brought up as France — which holds the rotating six-month presidency of the EU — vetoed it.
A recent EU statement: “The EU remains committed to its One China Policy and recognizes the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole government of China.” That is all well and good if we were still living in the 1970’s when there was still some question as to whether the government of Taiwan had any interest in going back to the mainland. Fifty years later Taiwan is an independent democracy of 24 million people who want to maintain their independence from the Bullies of Beijing.
The Free World must back Lithuania here and tell China to stop its unreasonable demands that the world comply with all its actions. If we do not draw a line here, they know we will do nothing to stop them from taking over Taiwan. The first country that needs to step up and back the Lithuanians is you guessed it – the United States. This is a good test of the backbone of Joe Biden and Antony Blinken.