The evacuation was not undertaken lightly. The shuttering of the embassy, which Lithuania insists is not closed for good, is the worst crisis in relations between China and a European state since 1981. That year the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands was recalled in response to the sale of Dutch submarines to Taiwan. Sino-Dutch ties remained downgraded for three years. Lithuania has been without an ambassador in Beijing since September, after China asked its envoy to leave. In November China unilaterally declared that each country’s respective embassy would be demoted to an office headed by a chargé d’affaires, or caretaker.
