2023-04-24 10:12:13
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted to a diplomatic scandal, in the center of which was the Chinese Ambassador to Paris, Lu Shai, who publicly questioned the sovereignty of the post-Soviet countries.
According to the statement of the department, China respects the sovereign status of all countries that were part of the USSR, and Beijing’s position on Crimea has not changed. Officially, China did not recognize the annexed peninsula as part of Russia, reports the BBC.
On Friday, speaking on the French TV channel TF1, Lou said, in particular, that the former republics of the Soviet Union “do not have a valid status in international law, since there is no international agreement that would secure their status as sovereign countries.”
On Crimea’s ownership of Ukraine, Lu Shai said, “It depends on how you look at it. There is a story. Crimea belonged to Russia from the very beginning. It was Khrushchev who gave Crimea to Ukraine during the Soviet Union.”
The Chinese diplomat also called for an end to “arguing” over the issue of post-Soviet borders.
A day later, on Saturday evening, the French Foreign Ministry reacted to the ambassador’s statement. The diplomatic department noted that they “learned with alarm about the statement” of the Chinese ambassador, and asked official Beijing to comment on his statements, clarifying whether “reflect [эти слова] official position.
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the international community recognized Ukraine as a new state in the UN – within the borders that include Crimea,” the French Foreign Ministry recalled, separately emphasizing that the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 “in accordance with the norms of the international law is illegal.”
Nearly 80 MEPs on Monday signed an open letter addressed to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna demanding that Lu Shai be recognized as persona non grata, as his Friday comments “go beyond acceptable diplomatic discourse.”
The Chinese Embassy in France has deleted the transcript of the interview with the ambassador on its WeChat account. The interview was not published on the official website of the embassy.
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