Last Friday, China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, was on a French television show being pressed about the status of Crimea. The question was pretty simple: “Is Crimea Ukraine to you?” Lu Shaye balked at answer that one, laughing nervously and then starting into a response that began “It depends…”

“First, at the very beginning, Crimea belonged to Russia, didn’t it?” he ventured. He continued, “And it’s Khrushchev who offered Crimea to Ukraine in the USSR times.”

The interviewer interrupted saying “According to international law, as you know, Crimea is Ukraine.” And that’s when Lu Shaye took it up a notch by suggesting that Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics don’t actually have any status in international law “because there is no international agreement to materialize their sovereignty.” His interviewer asked if this meant the border issues from the fall of the USSR were still unresolved and at that point Lu Shaye tried to change the subject.

This was a big mess and over the weekend the EU foreign affairs secretary called the remarks unacceptable.

Unacceptable remarks of the Chinese Ambassador to France questioning the sovereignty of the countries which became independent with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The EU can only suppose these declarations do not represent China’s official policy.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) April 23, 2023

Several countries in Europe also said they wanted an explanation of Lu’s remarks. Lithuania’s foreign minister noted these comments really create a problem for China’s proposed role as peacemaker in Ukraine.

France also responded Sunday, with its Foreign Ministry stating its “full solidarity” with all the allied countries affected and calling on China to clarify whether these comments reflect its position, according to Reuters.

Germany said it expects China to explain its stance on the sovereignty of former Soviet states, saying it has “taken note of the Chinese ambassador’s statement on French television with great astonishment, especially since the statements are not in line with the Chinese position known to us so far.”

“Of course we expect China to explain its position unequivocally,” German Foreign Office spokesman Christian Wagner said on Monday…

“If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don’t trust China to ‘broker peace in Ukraine,’ here’s a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis wrote on Twitter Saturday following Lu’s interview.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Lu has shot his mouth off. He comes from the “wolf warrior” camp of Chinese diplomacy.

France summoned China’s ambassador on Tuesday to underscore the unacceptable nature of insults and threats aimed at French lawmakers and a researcher, and Beijing’s decision to sanction some European officials, a French foreign ministry source said.

Ambassador to France Lu Shaye had already been summoned by the foreign ministry last April over posts and tweets by the embassy defending Beijing’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and criticising the West’s handling of it.

He’s made a career out of this sort of thing but today China threw him under the bus, albeit without mentioning his name. A spokesperson for the foreign ministry issued a statement.

China respects the sovereign state status of ex-Soviet Union countries, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Monday…

“After the Soviet Union dissolved, China was the one of the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with the countries concerned. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties with these countries, China has always adhered to the principles of mutual request and equality in its development of amicable and cooperative bilateral relations,” Mao said in a press briefing Monday.

The embassy itself also released a statement claiming Lu’s remarks were just his “personal views” not the official position of China.

I support this objective and accurate statement of the Chinese Embassy in France. pic.twitter.com/J3EL7rmutM

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) April 24, 2023

Despite the quick backtracking, it’s hard not to hear the question of Taiwan hovering over this discussion. It started as a question about whether former Soviet satellite states might belong to Russia and Lu’s first response was to argue that yes they did, even decades after the collapse of the USSR. It’s not hard to see how that matches up with China’s official stance on it’s control of Taiwan despite the fact Taiwan has been independently governed for decades.

Really, for Lu there was no good answer to give in this situation. He either gives an answer that doesn’t make any sense (like the one he gave) or he undercuts Russia claims on Ukraine and with it his own country’s claims on Taiwan. Here’s the interview with English subtitles. He probably took the least bad option from his point of view.

Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to France, repeated Russian propaganda narratives on LCI channel. He called Crimea "originally Russian" and declared that ex-USSR countries "don't have an effective status in international law".

Waiting for Beijing's official reaction. Is it a… pic.twitter.com/A5yfdDX2nb

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) April 23, 2023