Publications

When Lithuania assumes the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in January 2027, it will do so under genuinely exceptional circumstances: no Member State has previously chaired the Council’s most China-sensitive economic-security files while lacking diplomatic relations with the country those files concern. This absence cuts both ways. On the one hand, it deprives Lithuania of the bilateral diplomatic infrastructure that can support a Presidency, on the other, it denies Beijing a direct channel through which to pressure the presiding state

Analyses of China’s governance often fixate on political centralization, portraying the system as a “one-man show” dominated by President Xi Jinping. Since taking office in 2012 and securing an unprecedented third term, Xi has consolidated exceptional decision-making authority and positioned himself as the chief architect of policy across nearly all strategic domains.

Mario Draghi, the former President of the European Central Bank, recently unveiled a long-awaited plan aimed at invigorating Europe’s economic growth. Central to his proposal is a call for the European Union (EU) to adopt a genuine foreign economic policy. For this ambition to be realized, unity among the EU’s 27 member states on their approach to China policy is essential.

Two years have passed since the opening of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius and the boiling point of the Sino–Lithuanian conflict that followed. On the surface, Lithuania’s rather firm stance and resistance amidst an authoritarian country’s pressure and qualitatively novel economic statecraft can be treated as a success story, in which it managed to emerge rather unscathed while also helping others realize that China is willing to use all leverages at its disposal to punish.

During the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco, Xi stated that China “has no plan to surpass or unseat the United States” and he also noted that “the world is big enough to accommodate both China and the United States”. Xi’s messages are in stark contrast to his previous proclamation that “the East is rising and the West is falling.” This signifies that on the diplomatic front, Beijing has recognized the need to de-escalate tensions with the US by easing its stance and projecting a less confrontational and more positive, conciliatory tone.

On September 28, the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Centre (GEC) released a special report on how China seeks to reshape the global information environment. In the report China was accused of employing “a variety of deceptive and coercive methods … to influence the international information environment.” As a response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry pushed back hard against the report, accusing the United States of being an “empire of lies” and adding that “it is the US that invented the weaponizing of the global information space.”

Some would say that China’s moral compass already broke in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and China did not condemn the war while maintaining its pro-Kremlin neutrality. But is neutrality the best Beijing can do now in the face of unequivocal evidence of inhumane barbarity by Palestinian terrorists against Israelis in violation of all humanitarian and international law?

Real-life Godzilla, two-headed fish and other abnormal creatures – that is what you would find in the Pacific Ocean right now if you were to succumb to China’s disinformation campaign against Japan’s decision to discharge treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that it will suspend the publication of youth unemployment data while the government seeks to “improve” and “optimize” statistical work. This announcement elicited decision on Chinese social media, with some users on Weibo accusing the government of “burying its head in the sand”. Indeed, the announcement comes at a critical juncture when the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas hit a record high of 21.3%. However, instead of addressing the drastically worsening youth unemployment, the government has chosen to stonewall the issue.

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the China factor has always remained under the international spotlight. While China, driven by a very pragmatic interest, has been continuing to embrace and strengthen its strategic partnership with Russia, it has also been seeking to be seen as a neutral country to not damage its relations with the West, namely the EU and the US.

In China’s highly secretive political landscape, an abrupt disappearance of a high-ranking official is not uncommon, but it often is a sign of trouble especially since Xi started its anti-corruption drive. In many cases, those officials would later surface along with the announcement of a criminal investigation. But, at the same time, there are instances (with Xi himself included) where politicians re-appear without any explanation.

Even though Blinken’s two-day trip to China, the first in his position to visit Beijing since 2018, yielded no breakthroughs on their most sensitive issues, namely the reopening of military-to-military exchanges, the visit appeared to have gone rather well.