Lithuania Opens Trade Office in Taiwan as Ties With China Sour

Paulius Lukauskas, head of the Lithuanian Trade Representative Office, speaks at a Taiwan-Lithuania Business Day event in Taipei on Sept. 12.

Photographer: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

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Lithuania opened a trade office in Taiwan, potentially escalating tensions with China that have been simmering since the European Union member state drew a stiff rebuke from Beijing.

The opening on Monday comes a year after the government in Taipei opened an office in Lithuania’s capital. China responded by downgrading diplomatic relations with the EU Baltic state over the office’s explicit use of the name Taiwan, a democratically ruled island that Beijing claims as its own.