Beijing was forced to back down after its ambassador to France caused a furore in Europe over the weekend by questioning the legal status of the former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday contradicted comments by Lu Shaye, who had enraged European capitals and fueled suspicion over Beijing’s ambitions to mediate in the war in Ukraine, by claiming the former Soviet states lacked an “effective status under international law.” .
Lu added that the issue of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, “is not easy to answer in a few words.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a news conference on Monday, “After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with relevant countries.
“China respects the sovereign status of the republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union.”
Later Monday, the Chinese embassy in Paris published a statement online, saying Lu’s “remarks on the Ukraine issue are not a statement of policy but an expression of personal views.”
Emmanuel Macron, President of France, said: “I don’t think it’s a diplomat’s job to use that kind of language.”
The French foreign ministry summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday.
Following Lu’s remarks, made in an interview with French news channel LCI, the French foreign ministry asked Beijing to clarify its position. Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian president, called Lu’s version of Crimea’s history “absurd”.
When asked if China would retract Lu’s comments, Mao replied, “What I can tell you is that my answer to the previous question represents the Chinese government’s formal position.”
Analysts suggested the State Department’s response was a dismissal of comments made by Lu, who has earned a reputation as one of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats, known for his combative style.
Lu had said that “these former Soviet Union countries have no effective status under international law because there is no international agreement to concretise their status as sovereign countries.”
“Legally speaking [Lu’s stance] is a false statement that is inconsistent with the position that the Chinese government has stated many times,” said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. “Politically, it continues to deteriorate relations with Eastern European countries and potentially have a domino effect on Central Asian ones.”
The three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said they would summon senior Chinese diplomats on Tuesday to protest Lu’s remarks, which were condemned by several ministers.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s foreign minister, said the comments were “completely unacceptable” and showed why the Baltic states did not trust Beijing’s intentions as a peace broker in Ukraine.
Latvia’s foreign ministry noted that Lu’s remarks “clearly contradict” China’s position in support of “sovereignty, independence and territorial indivisibility of countries.”
Italian Antonio Tajani said he disagreed with the ambassador’s remarks, adding that China must “respect everyone.” [EU] Member States”.
EU foreign ministers planned to discuss Lu’s remarks at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday as part of a larger conference to “assess and recalibrate” the bloc’s stance on Beijing, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said before the Conversation.
But China’s efforts to dismiss the ambassador’s claims are unlikely to satisfy the Baltic states, who argue they were never part of the Soviet Union because they were illegally annexed. Most western countries did not recognize this annexation.
“Lithuania never joined the USSR. Moscow illegally occupied our territory, so we resisted until we regained our independence and the Red Army returned home. We are not post-Soviet, we are never Soviet,” Landsbergis wrote on Twitter.
More than 80 parliamentarians from different European countries signed a petition calling on the French government to declare Lu persona non grata, meaning it would no longer recognize him as a diplomat.
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Speaking ahead of the Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, Borrell said the EU would “take a strong position” in response. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council that chairs the summits of the bloc’s 27 leaders, said EU-China policy will be on the official agenda of the next meeting in June.
Regarding Ukraine, China’s foreign ministry did not address Crimea directly, saying only that its position was “clear and consistent.”
“We stand ready to continue working with the international community to make our own contribution to the political resolution of the Ukraine crisis,” the spokesman said.