War in Ukraine: understand everything about the controversy triggered by the Chinese ambassador in France

Romain Rouillard / Photo credits: GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP 16:04 pm, April 24, 2023

Accustomed to rowdy statements, Lu Shaye, Chinese ambassador to France, recidivated this Friday on the set of LCI. Asked about the situation in Crimea, a territory unilaterally annexed by Russia in 2014, the diplomat disputed the fact that the peninsula could belong to Ukraine. "It depends on how you perceive the problem. At the very beginning, Crimea was Russian. It was Khrushchev (former leader of the USSR) who offered Crimea to Ukraine during the Soviet Union," Lu Shaye said.

@DariusRochebin: "Is Crimea, in your eyes, Ukraine?"

Lu Shaye: "It depends on how you perceive the problem [...] It's not that simple."

#La26pic.twitter.com/nspLMs9HO8

— LCI (@LCI) April 21, 2023

In 1954, the man who had just succeeded Joseph Stalin offered Crimea as a gift to Ukraine. Nevertheless, the leader does not imagine at this moment that the USSR would break up and that Moscow would lose control of the strategic port of Sevastopol. Since 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet bloc, almost the entire international community has recognized Kiev's sovereignty over the peninsula, "including China," the French Foreign Ministry said.

An "absurd version of Crimea's history"

Invited to speak on the issue, Lu Shaye did not hesitate to challenge the sovereignty of all the former satellites of the USSR, which have since become independent. "These countries of the former Soviet Union do not have the effective status in international law because there is no agreement in international law to concretize their status as sovereign countries," he said, calling not to "quibble over this kind of problem".

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On Twitter, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, was quick to react, denouncing an "absurd version of the history of Crimea". "All countries of the former Soviet Union have a clear sovereign status enshrined in international law. Except for Russia, which fraudulently took a seat on the UN Security Council," the Ukrainian official wrote before addressing the Chinese ambassador directly: "If you want to be a major political player, do not repeat the propaganda of Russian foreigners."

Lu Shaye's claims have provoked reactions far beyond Ukraine's borders, especially in the states formerly integrated into the USSR, directly targeted by the diplomat's remarks. "The Chinese representative's comments on independent and sovereign states are wrong and are a misinterpretation of history. The Baltic states under international law have been sovereign since 1918 but have been occupied for 50 years," Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna tweeted. His Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics did not hide his indignation either, castigating "unacceptable statements" and calling on the European Union to "react firmly".

The comments by the Chinese representative on independent & sovereign states are false & a misinterpretation of history.

Baltic states under international law have been sovereign since 1918 but were occupied for 50 years. https://t.co/0PlUmRR2S6

— Margus Tsahkna (@Tsahkna) April 22, 2023

Dodos uz Luksemburgu, Eiropas Savienības Ārlietu padomi. Galvenese jautājums: Krievijas agresija Ukrainā, iestāsimies par ātru 11.sankciju paketes pret Krieviju apstiprināšanu. Aicināšu ES nosodīt nepieņemamos Ķīnas vēstnieka Francijā izteikumus, ES ir jāreaģē stingri un vienoti

— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) April 23, 2023

Lu Shaye, summoned several times by the Quai d'Orsay

On Saturday, the France said it "took note with dismay" of the remarks made by the Chinese diplomat calling on Beijing to "say (if they) reflect its position, which we hope will not be the case". Lu Shaye is also summoned to the Quai d'Orsay on Monday, "the opportunity for very firm clarifications," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP. This Chinese representative has already received such a summons several times, including in 2020 when the Chinese embassy had considered, in the midst of a health crisis, that caregivers "[abandoned] the elderly in nursing homes by letting them die".

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A few months later, he directly attacked the French researcher Antoine Bondaz, a specialist in China and Taiwan, calling him a "small strike" and a "crazy hyena". An attitude that is in line with that of the "fighting wolves", a group of Chinese diplomats, to which Lu Shaye belongs, and whose mission is to defend China against a Western world portrayed as systematically aggressive and hostile towards it.

Faced with the outcry triggered by the statements of its representative, China assured on Monday that it respected "the status of sovereign state" of the countries of the former USSR but also "the independence and territorial integrity of all countries" while affirming its support "for the objectives and principles of the United Nations Charter".