Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT has aired a 15-minute segment on the recent warming of ties between Lithuania and Taiwan.
Lithuania’s announcement in June that it would give Taiwan 20,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses has led to a sudden boom for all things Lithuanian in Taiwan.
Lithuanian beer, chocolate, and cookies have surged in popularity. And Taiwan’s national credit card center reports that because of a spike in orders, Lithuania has recently made it for the first time onto the list of the ten countries where Taiwanese card holders spend the most.
Meanwhile, a Lithuanian charity supporting disadvantaged pregnant women has reported a sudden influx of donations from Taiwan.
Ties are also warming at the governmental level. Lithuania and Taiwan plan to exchange representative offices in the near future.
Of particular significance is the fact that Lithuania will allow the Taiwanese office in Vilnius to explicitly call itself a Taiwanese representative office. Most countries that host Taiwanese representative offices prefer more euphemistic wording in order to avoid upsetting China.
China has already pulled its ambassador from Lithuania in protest as a result, and demanded that Lithuania also recall its ambassador to Beijing.
The LRT news report featured interviews with Lithuanian officials, the head of a Lithuanian electronics company, and a Lithuanian economic scholar. Also interviewed was Taiwan’s representative to the neighboring country of Latvia, Eric Huang. Huang said he hopes to promote economic ties between Taiwan and Lithuania.