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Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

economist.com

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Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#71

Post by RyEgswuCsn »

baylearn wrote: post #48
RyEgswuCsn wrote: post #27

Why "evacuate"? Were the safety of the embassy's staff under threat? I can't help but wonder if the word was deliberately chosen for click-baiting --- the only three occurrences of "evacuate/evacuation", including the one in the title, are concentrated in the second and third paragraphs --- it is as if they are injected as a last-minute after-thought.

The Chinese government had demanded Lithuania’s remaining diplomats in Beijing hand in their diplomatic IDs to the foreign ministry to have their diplomatic status lowered. The move raised concern in Vilnius that the officials could lose diplomatic immunity, putting their safety at risk if they remained in China. [1] After Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius under the "Taiwan" name, an…

Genuine questions:

1. Do diplomats normally lose immunity after an embassy is demoted to a consulate (or something of a lower status)? 2. Did China have a history of detaining diplomatic personnel, disregarding their immunity?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#73

Post by SuoDuanDao »

ekianjo wrote: post #37
jeidz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can. The western world can’t afford to be without China’s manufacturing, though.

China's economy would crumble a little if it could not sell anything outside anymore. Imagine a few billions of people losing their current level of life in China... a good recipe for regime change.

Now imagine all those Chinese factories being repurposed for the sole purpose of producing armaments as happened in the West during WW2.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#74

Post by eckesicle »

jeidz wrote: post #51
ekianjo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China's economy would crumble a little if it could not sell anything outside anymore. Imagine a few billions of people losing their current level of life in China... a good recipe for regime change.

Europe is much smaller than you think.

US has 40% of world GDP and EU ~32%. If you include non-EU countries they're neck and neck.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#75

Post by lmilcin »

paxys wrote: post #69
chongli wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure we can. It may hurt a lot at first but we'll get over it. Think about how hard it was to rebuild after WW2. This would be nowhere near that difficult since none of the west is a bombed-out ruin today and all of the west is made up of advanced economies with highly educated populations. Furthermore, there are developing countries (such as Vietnam) that are going full-steam-ahead with ramping up production, especi…

The sole reason USA leapfrogged the rest of the developed world economically after WW2 was because they didn't have to rebuild everything from scratch. Cutting off all reliance on China would be economic suicide for any individual nation unless every one mutually agrees on it. Best of luck getting that to happen.

> The sole reason USA leapfrogged the rest of the developed world economically after WW2 was because they didn't have to rebuild everything from scratch.

Nah, you need to read/watch Secret History of Silicon Valley to understand this is false. https://steveblank.com/secret-history/

Obviously, not having to rebuild your country helps. But thinking this is the only or even main reason is very shortsighted, IMO.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#76

Post by albeva »

BrazzVuvuzela wrote: post #61
albeva wrote: post #54

I wish whole of EU would declare in unison support for Taiwan. Wonder if China would kick out every single EU nation embassy then?

If they did that, I hope they would coordinate the timing with America first. It would be American forces, not so much the EU, that would be helping Taiwan defend against the invasion that would probably follow.

While true, it is often ignored that combined EU does possess a huge, highly advanced and well trained military force.

So more than that I'd hope EU can then put its squabbling aside and respong in unison to any military provocation as well.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#77

Post by hirundo »

I think the right response to these provocations is to assist Taiwan in protecting itself. Essentially we should reverse the betrayal of Taiwan by Nixon in 1972, when he withdrew the US nuclear presence there. This time, to protect from changing political winds, the nukes should be under the control of Taiwan.

Nothing much else will deter China.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#78

Post by maxdo »

Hope this Russian-Ukraine tensions, also China-Taiwan tensions will open eyes of western world like it happened with Europe during WWII.

Collapse of Soviet Union influenced western world badly. They relaxed and eased requirements whom to work with.

We need at least to introduce tyranny tax, same as carbon tax. That will give a good boost of local economies also gives a proper signal to the entire world.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#79

Post by philliphaydon »

yardie wrote: post #16
someguydave wrote: post #9

Europeans were quick to scorn Mr Trump’s policies but the reality is that China has been unfair in its trade practices. Also, losing liberty in Hong Kong was sad but it will be much worse if free Taiwan is crushed by CCP ambition. The West should have alot of introspection about which battles are the right ones to choose. How will history judge the current leadership of the West if they abandon Taiwan?

If you are the referring to Trump cancelling TPP it was a dumb move that only emboldened China. The TPP was supposed to be the US and 12 smaller Asian nations vs China. TPP was created because of China's unfair trade practices and Trump dismantled it. No one needs to rewrite his history. The guy was a complete fucking disaster.

I don’t think I ever heard anything positive about the TPP. NZ hated it because it was being pushed through the government and no one was allowed to read it. When questioned if we could change the Terms or cancel in the future if it turned out bad for us we could not get an answer. No one in nz wanted the TPP.

It’s the only good thing trump did IMO. As a kiwi.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#80

Post by RyEgswuCsn »

chx wrote: post #55
RyEgswuCsn wrote: post #27

Why "evacuate"? Were the safety of the embassy's staff under threat? I can't help but wonder if the word was deliberately chosen for click-baiting --- the only three occurrences of "evacuate/evacuation", including the one in the title, are concentrated in the second and third paragraphs --- it is as if they are injected as a last-minute after-thought.

> Were the safety of the embassy's staff under threat? Without question. Previously, China arrested Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig to force Canada to release Meng Wanzhou. No one forgot that.

Did Lithuania detain Chinese citizens/diplomats first? I can understand their need to evacuate if they did.
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