China’s ambassador to France inadvertently sparked a diplomatic crisis over the weekend by casually questioning the sovereignty of countries that were once Soviet republics. Speaking during a French TV interview, Lu Shaye was asked about whether Crimea is part of Ukraine. “Even these ex-Soviet countries don’t have an effective status in international law because there was no international agreement to materialize their status as sovereign countries,” Lu said. The remark prompted immediate and widespread outrage, with Chinese representatives summoned in the former Soviet states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to clarify Lu’s comments. The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, also tweeted to call Lu’s remarks “unacceptable,” adding that the EU “can only suppose these declarations do not represent China’s official policy.”
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