[jelly]

Its incorrect to call opening an office for Taiwan a "rash, emotional move". It's a simple ackowledgement of the way things already are (two nations who talk and negotiate with each other) and helps Taiwan and France build their relationship.

The concern is that the CCP will have a rash, emotional response (as they did with Lithuania) because they imagine they can set the terms for any Taiwan-related business.

These frequent emotional outbursts have cost the CCP so much political capital, which means countries like France will reconsider their relationship.

[mytailorisrich]

France, like everyone else, has all the communications channels it needs with Taiwan, and does business with Taiwan as it sees fit, but I was not specifically referring to that but rather to closing the embassy in China and other actions against China.

[pedrosorio]

> Its incorrect to call opening an office for Taiwan a "rash, emotional move"

> but I was not specifically referring to that but rather to closing the embassy in China and other actions against China

Could you clarify what other actions did Lithuania take against China? This is the timeline afaik [0]:

- In August 2021, the ROC opened its representative office in Vilnius under the name of "Taiwanese"

- In response, the PRC recalled its ambassador in Vilnius, Shen Zhifei, and demanded that Lithuania recall its ambassador in Beijing, Diana Mickevičienė.

- On 3 December 2021, Lithuania reported that in an escalation of the diplomatic spat over relations with Taiwan, China had stopped all imports from the Baltic state. It said Beijing has delisted Lithuania as a country of origin, preventing items from clearing customs, and was rejecting all import applications

- As a result of the conflict China pressured Continental AG and other international companies to stop doing business with Lithuania.[7] The spat spilled over to the rest of the EU when China banned the import of goods which contained Lithuanian parts potentially disrupting integrated supply chains in the common market.

^ not included in the timeline: internal propaganda to smear Lithuania as a nation once the PRC deemed the tiny country a threat for allowing ROC to open a representative office under the name "Taiwanese" in its capital

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Lithuania_relati...

[createunderrate]

Don't forget, there are hundreds of thousands of people employed by China to manipulate public opinion about China online.

Looking at the comment history of the person you responded to, they post pro-China stuff a lot. This is probably not a conversation being had in good faith by two disinterested parties. You're responding to a member of the 50 cent army.

They're everywhere online now. Some subtle, some not so subtle. But whenever I see a pro-China poster who doesn't really give any evidence to back up what they're saying, and they just spew pro-China apologist rhetoric, I become very suspicious.

[dang]

You can't post like this to HN—it's egregiously against the site guidelines, and we ban accounts that do it. If you would please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules in the future, we'd be grateful. Don't miss this one:

"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email [e-mail] and we'll look at the data."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you want explanation as to why we have this rule, there is many years' worth at this link:

https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

also:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27398725

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26652363 (<-- Mini-FAQ)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26637365

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27397695

[mytailorisrich]

I have to flag this comment, which is nothing but a baseless ad hominem attack and insult, and has no place here. @dang

[CRConrad]

How is closing an embassy an "action against" someone?