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China has downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania after Taiwan established a de facto embassy in Vilnius. (File photo: AFP/PETRAS MALUKAS) - 

China downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania on Sunday (Nov 21), expressing strong dissatisfaction with the Baltic State after Taiwan opened a de facto embassy there, escalating a row that has sucked in Washington.

China views self-ruled and democratically governed Taiwan as its territory with no right to the trappings of a state and has stepped up pressure on countries to downgrade or sever their relations with the island, even non-official ones.

Lithuania expressed regret over China's move but defended its right to expand cooperation with Taiwan, while respecting Beijing's "One China" policy, and said its foreign minister would go to Washington to discuss trade and investment projects.

Taiwan, meanwhile, reported that two Chinese nuclear-capable H-6 bombers had flown to the south of the island on Sunday, part of a pattern of what Taipei views as military harassment designed to pressure the government.

Beijing had already expressed its anger this summer with Lithuania - which has formal relations with China and not Taiwan - after it allowed the island to open an office in the country using the name Taiwan. China recalled its ambassador in August.

Other Taiwan offices in Europe and the United States use the name of the city Taipei, avoiding reference to the island itself. However, the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania finally opened on Thursday.

China's Foreign Ministry said in a brusque statement that Lithuania had ignored China's "solemn stance" and the basic norms of international relations.

Beijing said relations would be downgraded to the level of charge d'affaires, a rung below ambassador.

The move "undermined China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and grossly interfered in China's internal affairs", creating a "bad precedent internationally", it said.

"We urge the Lithuanian side to correct its mistakes immediately and not to underestimate the Chinese people's firm determination and staunch resolve to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," China's foreign ministry said.

No matter what Taiwan does, it cannot change the fact that it is part of China, it said.

Lithuania's Prime Minsiter Ingrida Simonyte said on Sunday that the opening of the representative office, which does not have a formal diplomatic status, should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

"Our government's programme says Lithuania wants a more intense economic, cultural and scientific relationship with Taiwan," she said. "I want to emphasise that this step does not mean any conflict or disagreement with the 'One China' policy."

The prime minister of Lithuania's larger EU neighbour Poland said on Sunday that it supported the stance taken by Vilnius.

Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name, and that the People's Republic of China has never ruled it and has no right to speak for it.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council denounced China's "rudeness and arrogance", saying Beijing had no right to comment on something that was not an internal Chinese affair and purely a matter between Taiwan and Lithuania.

Taiwan has been heartened by growing international support in the face of China's military and diplomatic pressure, especially from the United States and some of its allies.

Washington rejects attempts by other countries to interfere in Lithuania's relationship with Taiwan, US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya told a news conference in Vilnius on Friday.

Lithuania Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis will go to Washington on Tuesday where he expects to discuss the opening of the US market to Lithuanian goods and developing common investment projects, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Landsbergis will meet US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W Fernandez "to discuss possibilities to expand and deepen mutually beneficial economic ties", it said.

Washington has offered Vilnius support to withstand Chinese pressure and Lithuania will sign a US$600 million export credit agreement with the US Export-Import Bank on Wednesday.

Only 15 countries have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

Taipei could lose another ally to Beijing after the Honduran presidential election later this month, where a candidate backed by main opposition parties is leading in opinion polls.

If elected, Xiomara Castro has vowed to establish official relations with China//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A sign reads, "Bitcoin accepted here", outside a store where the cryptocurrency is accepted as a payment method in San Salvador, El Salvador, Sep 24, 2021. (Reuters/Jose Cabezas) - 

El Salvador plans to build the world's first "Bitcoin City" which will be funded initially by bitcoin bonds, President Nayib Bukele said on Saturday (Nov 20), doubling down on the Central American country's bet on the cryptocurrency.

Speaking at an event to mark the close of a week to promote bitcoin in El Salvador, Bukele said the city planned in the east of the country would get its energy supply from a volcano and would not levy any taxes except for value added tax (VAT).

"We'll start funding in 2022, the bonds will be available in 2022," Bukele told a cheering crowd at the event.

Speaking alongside Bukele, Samson Mow, chief strategy officer of blockchain technology provider Blockstream, said El Salvador would initially issue a US$1 billion bond backed by bitcoin to begin raising funds for the planned city.

El Salvador in September became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo - 

Saudi Arabia held its position as the biggest supplier of crude oil to China for an 11th month in a row in October, with volumes up 19.5per cent from a year ago, customs data showed on Sunday.

Saudi oil arrivals totalled 7.1 million tonnes, or 1.67 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed, which is 19.5per cent higher than 1.4 million bpd a year and compares with 1.94 million bpd in September.

Inflows from Russia, including pipeline oil, inched up by 1.3per cent from a year ago to 6.6 million tonnes last month, or 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd). That compared with 1.49 million bpd in September.

The growth in Russian supplies, primarily of its flagship oil ESPO blend, followed China's release of fresh import quotas in August and October that allowed independent plants to lift purchases of one of their favourite grades.

Still, China's overall October crude oil imports fell to the lowest in three years amid Beijing's broad cap on independent refiners' imports.

Supplies from Brazil were down 53.2per cent from a year earlier, while those from the United States slumped by 91.8per cent.

Reuters reported China's imports of Iranian oil have held above half a million barrels per day on average between August and October, as buyers judge that getting crude at cheap prices outweighs any risks from busting U.S. sanctions.

Most of these barrels were passed on as exports from Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, weighing on competing supplies from Brazil and West Africa.

Official data has consistently shown China has imported zero oil from Iran or Venezuela since start of 2021, as national oil companies stayed on the sidelines on worries over U.S. sanctions//CNA

Members of the National Orchestra System play a 12-minute Tchaikovsky piece to try and break a Guinness World Record in Caracas, Venezuela on Nov 13, 2021. (Photo: AP/Ariana Cubillos) - 

Thousands of Venezuelan musicians, most of them children and adolescents, have earned the title of the world’s largest orchestra.

The record was set by 8,573 musicians. Guinness World Records in a video released on Saturday (Nov 20) announced that the musicians, all connected to the country’s network of youth orchestras, earned the designation with a performance a week earlier of Tchaikovsky’s Slavonic March.

The musicians, ranging in age from 12 to 77, attempted the record during a patriotic concert at a military academy in the capital of Caracas. To set the record, more than 8,097 had to be tallied playing at the same time during a five-minute period of Tchaikovsky’s piece.

The network of orchestras known as El Sistema, or The System, assembled some 12,000 musicians for the concert. The repertoire included Venezuela by Pablo Herrero and Jose Luis Armenteros, the South American country’s national anthem and Pedro Gutierrez’s Alma Llanera, which Venezuelans consider their unofficial anthem.

More than 250 supervisors were each assigned a group of musicians to observe during the record attempt.

The previous record belonged to a Russian group that played that country’s national anthem//CNA