The Chinese government had demanded Lithuania’s remaining diplomats in Beijing hand in their diplomatic IDs to the foreign ministry to have their diplomatic status lowered. The move raised concern in Vilnius that the officials could lose diplomatic immunity, putting their safety at risk if they remained in China. [1]
After Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius under the "Taiwan" name, and subsequently getting blocked from Chinese customs from EU shipping routes [2], and now being asked to change the ID of their diplomats to remove the diplomatic status, many would not doubt that the Chinese government would arrest and detain some embassy staff in this move, as ordinary residents of the country, like they have done in the past in the case of Canadians [3]
1. Do diplomats normally lose immunity after an embassy is demoted to a consulate (or something of a lower status)?
2. Did China have a history of detaining diplomatic personnel, disregarding their immunity?
Full title (I shortened to 80 characters): Andrew Left Was Banned From Trading in Hong Kong for Saying China Evergrande Group Was Insolvent. Was He Right All Along?
The real estate firm — which Left targeted in a 2012 short report — now faces a reckoning on its $300 billion in liabilities.
Liabilities of roughly $300B on the books only, but there is also their submarine debt which is said to be comparable to what they already have on the books, if not more.
They also practiced Enron style liabilities as assets disguise, so their real total asset-to-liability ratio would be even lower.
Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu—which means “Little Red Book” in Chinese and is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. —wrote in a post on China’s Twitter -like Weibo platform on June 4, “Tell me loudly, what is the date today?”
After Lithuania allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in Vilnius under the "Taiwan" name, and subsequently getting blocked from Chinese customs from EU shipping routes [2], and now being asked to change the ID of their diplomats to remove the diplomatic status, many would not doubt that the Chinese government would arrest and detain some embassy staff in this move, as ordinary residents of the country, like they have done in the past in the case of Canadians [3]
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/587cff8f-3a7f-45c3-b4c7-8ac6f3e0a...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/china-lithuania-trade-idUSKB...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Michael_Spavor_an...