China accuses Lithuania of hypocrisy after being slammed by MPs over violations of rights

“Just as the new electoral system is taking root and democracy is improving in Hong Kong, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas criticizes, attacks and smears the process and the result of the election in Hong Kong,” the office said in comments sent to BNS.

Earlier in June, three Lithuanian MPs called on the Seimas of Lithuania to condemn Beijing’s repressions in Hong Kong and not to recognize that the appointment of Hong Kong leader in May was democratic.

They drafted a parliamentary resolution, which also urged the Chinese government to release all political prisoners in Hong Kong, including those sentenced for participation in banned Tiananmen crackdown commemorations.

The parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, in its turn, adopted unanimously a statement calling for measures to be taken in response to China’s continuing actions in Hong Kong violating the principles of human rights and the international rule of law.

Meanwhile, the Office of China’s Charge d’Affaires stated that the statement adopted by the Seimas committee “maliciously slanders the electoral system of the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), defames Hong Kong's democracy, freedom, and the rule of law”.

According to China, Lithuania, “in defiance of its own deplorable human rights records such as discrimination against ethnic minorities, … torture and abuse of prisoners, violence and maltreatment against refugees” and other violations of human rights, “takes itself as a “lecturer” on democracy”.

“By doing so, Lithuania is only revealing its hypocrisy and double standards,” China’s diplomats stressed.

After seven months of pro-democratic protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019, Beijing imposed a law on the semi-autonomous city effectively criminalizing dissent.

In May, a number of countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, joined the European Union (EU) in its concerns voiced about how Hong Kong’s new leader was chosen.

Beijing, in its turn, praised the election process as the “real demonstration of democratic spirit” and claimed that this was the climax of the strategy aimed at having the “patriots only” in charge of the city.