Lithuania asked Taipei to change name of office before Beijing’s National Day: reports

The government of Lithuania asked Taipei to change the name of a controversial representative office in Vilnius before Beijing’s National Day last month, according to explosive media reports in the tiny Baltic state.

The twist comes as Vilnius seeks to restore diplomatic ties with Beijing, which have been frozen since the opening of the office in 2021.

Reports in Delfi, a Lithuanian news portal, on Monday said a deputy foreign minister delivered a letter to Taipei’s representatives – including the head of the “Taiwanese Representative Office” – on September 24, asking them to change the office’s name by October 1.

According to the report, Lithuania offered to send a vice-ministerial delegation to Taipei in exchange and sign agreements on investment and taxation.

Meanwhile, a delegation of diplomats from Beijing is due to land in Vilnius on Wednesday for two days of meetings, in a further sign of a thaw. Meetings are expected with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but not at ministerial level, the South China Morning Post understands.

The Lithuanian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did China’s.

Representatives of Taipei did not respond to questions about whether the office name had been or would be changed, but told local news portal 15min that it did not intend to change the name.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has not ruled out the use of force to reunify it. Most countries, including Lithuania and the rest of the European Union, do not recognise the self-ruled island as an independent state. However, the EU states that it wishes to expand business and cultural ties with Taipei, short of diplomatic recognition.

While Taiwan retains a diplomatic presence in other European countries, Lithuania is the only place to feature “Taiwanese” in the name. In other capitals, it bears the name Taipei.

Xi’s National Day speech warns against Taiwan independence

After the office was opened in 2021, China removed Lithuania from its customs system, meaning Lithuanian exporters could not ship goods to the country. Beijing claimed Vilnius had violated the EU’s one-China policy and expelled its ambassador in 2021, while also withdrawing its own envoy from Lithuania.

It also deepened tensions between the EU and China, which worsened further because of Beijing’s close relationship with Russia.

The EU has said that Lithuania had not breached its one-China policy and launched a World Trade Organization case against the trade embargo, although that case was subsequently dropped.

Since the Social Democrat-led Lithuanian government took office in 2024, it has tried to smooth relations with China. Successive centre-left prime ministers have also condemned the previous centre-right leadership’s decision to open the office, claiming that Vilnius got little in return.

EU sources said, however, that whenever delegations from Lithuania had gone to Beijing in an effort to normalise ties, they had been told they would have to accept all of China’s terms, including changing the name of the office.

In a post on its Facebook page last Friday, the “Taiwanese Representative Office” in Vilnius wrote: “We believe that public discussions concerning Taiwan-Lithuania relations should be grounded in verifiable facts rather than unsubstantiated assumptions or speculation.”