China’s Economic Pressure Campaign against Lithuania: The Novelties and Limits of Chinese Economic Statecraft and Coercion

In late 2021, Lithuania was targeted by the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) unprecedentedly assertive and multi-dimensional pressure campaign that included a rarely witnessed array of coercive economic measures. The Chinese party-state used its vast and diverse economic resources to punish Lithuania in response to the country’s comprehensive review of their bilateral relationship, and particularly the outreach to Taiwan. While largely conforming with previous examples of Chinese economic pressure, the variety and intensity of the punitive economic measures used by Beijing make the case of Lithuania especially significant in both empirical and theoretical terms. The campaign’s notable ferocity and ingenuity were related to Lithuania’s unusually low direct economic dependence on the PRC. Although Beijing failed to achieve any direct policy results in the short term, the impact of its coercive economic measures in the target country appears to be more nuanced and mixed.
Keywords: China; Lithuania; economic statecraft; economic coercion; economic pressure campaign