China Struggles to Walk Back Wolf Warrior’s Comments Questioning Independence of Post-Soviet Nations

Beijing is in damage-control mode, struggling to walk back comments by its ambassador to France claiming that post-Soviet states have no legal status under international law.

During an interview with France’s TV1 station last week, Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye said that Crimea is Russian territory, adding, “Even these countries of the former Soviet Union do not have the effective status in international law, since there is no international agreement that would solidify their status as sovereign countries.” These comments, which openly assail the legal status of independent states across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, triggered an instant backlash that exceed previous outraged responses to Lu’s conduct.

While French president Emmanuel Macron recently huddled with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China, also distancing himself from the U.S. approach to Taiwan, the French foreign ministry condemned Lu’s comments, expressing “full solidarity” with the countries to which he was referring and demanding that he clarify his comments. Macron called the sovereignty of the countries Lu referenced “inviolable” and said that “it’s not the place of a diplomat to use that kind of language.”

Baltic leaders were outraged, and some took the incident to implicitly push back against Macron’s calls for China to broker peace in Ukraine. Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote on Twitter: “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.” The EU’s top foreign-affairs official called Lu’s comments “unacceptable.”

Lu has a long record of making remarks that spark outrage, such as when he said last year that Taiwanese people would be subject to “reeducation” after a future Chinese annexation of Taiwan, teasing a brutal military occupation that resembles Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs. Unlike during that episode, when Lu doubled down on the remarks in subsequent interviews, the Chinese foreign ministry has apparently come to the conclusion that the diplomat’s most recent remarks are so damaging as to merit a full walkback.

The foreign ministry dispatched its spokesperson, Mao Ning, to clarify yesterday that Lu’s remarks don’t reflect China’s policy: “China respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the Soviet Union’s dissolution.” The Chinese embassy in France also disavowed Lu’s comments, taking down a transcript of the TF1 interview from its website. Even more strikingly, the embassy’s spokesperson released a statement, also yesterday, explaining that “Ambassador Lu Shaye’s remarks on the Ukraine issue were not a statement of politics, but an expression of personal views during a televised debate.” Hu Xijin, a Wolf Warrior–style propagandist with the CCP’s Global Times, even disseminated the embassy’s statement to his large following on Twitter. Other Chinese propaganda organs have amplified a similar message.

Beijing has taken close to every step possible to minimize the fallout from Lu’s remarks, short of recalling him, and the diplomatic blowup could not come at a more embarrassing time for China’s overtures to European politicians who prefer to overlook Chinese misbehavior in favor of diplomatic engagement. After all, Macron had just recently emphasized China’s role in bringing an end to the war in Ukraine during a telephone call with President Biden. It’s also telling that Lu’s comments previewing a Chinese occupation of Taiwan were not walked back last year.