China downgrades diplomatic ties with Lithuania amid Taiwan dispute

The move comes in response to the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius last week and means that Chinese and Lithuanian ambassadors would not work in Vilnius and Beijing and diplomatic representations would be led by lower-level diplomats, chargé d’affaires. “The Chinese government, out of the need to safeguard national sovereignty and basic norms governing international relations, has no choice but to downgrade its diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the chargé d’affaires level,” the ministry said in its statement released Sunday morning. “The Lithuanian government must bear all the ensuing consequences,” the statement reads, adding that Lithuania’s actions have created “an egregious precedent in the world”.