China has suspended imports of beef from Lithuania, amid a growing trade spat with the Baltic nation and its Western allies centre on Chinese-claimed Taiwan.
The General Administration of Customs did not give a reason for the suspension, which took effect on Wednesday.
The agency typically halts imports of meat if exporting nations report outbreaks of disease in livestock meanwhile Lithuania has not reported any animal disease to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) recently.
However, China has used trade restrictions against countries deemed to have acted against its interests before. In 2020, Beijing placed curbs on billions of dollars of Australian exports, including beef, barely and wine, after Canberra called for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chinese lecturer in foreign policy at the Australian National University, Nathan Attrill revealed that Beijing viewed its economic leverage as its most important tool in its
Meanwhile Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian today called on Lithuania to face up to facts, redress its own mistakes, and come back to the right track of adhering to the one China principle, instead of confusing right with wrong.