Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced today the country’s withdrawal from the bloc of 17 Central and East European countries plus China, known as the China-CEEC or “17+1,” telling Politico in an email: “From our perspective, it is high time for the EU to move from a dividing 16+1 format to a more uniting and therefore much more efficient 27+1…. The EU is strongest when all 27-member states act together along with EU institutions.” His reference addresses two recent incidents: the May 19 vote in the European Parliament to nullify the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), and the same day’s vote in the Lithuania parliament to join in the attack on China, demanding the UN “investigate” the alleged “internment camps” in Xinjiang, and allegations of “genocide” against the Uighur minority—whose population has grown in the province since Beijing took on the terrorist outbreak by separatists.
Following Lithuania’s departure, 11 other EU countries remain in the grouping: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Non-EU members include Albania, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Although the China-CEEC group had nothing to do with the European Union as such, many of EU members joined because of the development prospects proffered by the Belt and Road Initiative, which included credit for infrastructure they couldn’t get from Brussels.
Landsbergis’s comment to Politico included the almost-laughable line that “Vaccination rollout, tackling pandemics are just few recent examples of the EU27 united in solidarity and purpose. Unity of 27 is key to success in EU’s relations with external partners. Relations with China should be no exception.” The EU’s dealing with supplying vaccine to its members has been so poor, that several of them have gone off the reservation to seek vaccines from China and Russia. The five non-EU members, plus Greece and Hungary, at least, have received free masks and vaccines from China.
During his press conference yesterday, Zhao Lijian referred to Lithuania’s Xinjiang allegations as “an out-and-out lie.” He also responded to the European Parliament resolution, that “The EU’s unjustified sanctions strain China-EU relations. This is what China is unwilling to see, and what China should not be blamed for. It is hoped that the EU side will make serious reflections.”
