US State Department official Matt Murray says that the name of Taiwan’s planned representative office in Lithuania is not for China to decide.
Murray is the Senior Bureau Official in the US State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He was speaking Thursday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
Taiwan has representative offices in many countries worldwide, but most are officially known by euphemistic names that avoid the word “Taiwan”. However, Lithuania has decided that the planned Taiwanese office in its capital will simply be called a “Taiwan Representative Office”.
China has reacted angrily to the decision. Earlier in the year, it recalled its ambassador from Lithuania, and demanded that Lithuania’s ambassador in Beijing leave as well.
Murray told a reporter that China has used bullying and threats towards Lithuania, something he called unacceptable. He said that the US, Lithuania, and countries that share their values must make it clear to China that using political and economic means to repress other countries will not work.
Murray said that Lithuania has the right to develop cultural, and especially, economic ties with Taiwan. He also said that the only way to deal with bullying is through resistance. He said the example of other countries that have stopped resisting Chinese pressure shows that such countries pay a price, becoming ever more economically reliant on China.