China’s Financial Retaliation Against Lithuania Exposes EU’s Risky Blind Spot

China’s recent move to sanction two Lithuanian banks—UAB Urbo Bankas and Mano Bankas AB—is more than a tit-for-tat response to European Union restrictions on Chinese financial institutions linked to Moscow. It is a calculated message that Beijing intends to punish smaller EU members who push back against its aggressive alignment with Russia, threatening the cohesion of Western alliances.The EU imposed its latest round of sanctions on August 9 targeting entities supporting Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, including unnamed Chinese financial bodies. China retaliated by cutting off cooperation with the Lithuanian banks, escalating what should be a principled stand into an...