China has sought to distance itself from controversial remarks about the sovereignty of Ukraine after widespread outrage. China's Paris ambassador Lu Shaye made the comments last week, and now Bejing has been urged to clarify its position. On Monday, China's foreign ministry rowed back against the comments and insisted that Beijing respected the independence of all post-Soviet republics, rejecting Lu's position.
Story by Tim McNulty • Tuesday 25 April 2023
During an interview with Frances' LCI network, Lu called into question Ukraine's right to defend it's sovereignty under international law.
He said: "Even these former Soviet countries don't have an effective status under international law because there is no international agreement under international law to concretise their status as sovereign countries."
According to a statement from the Chinese embassy in Paris, Lu's remarks were viewed as a personal point of view and should not be taken too seriously.
Three Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, have summoned Chinese representatives to clarify Lu's remarks, which have been criticised by other European Union foreign ministers.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a presidential assistant in Ukraine, called Lu's understanding of international law and approach to Crimea "absurd."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning publically rebuked Lu's comments on Monday.
She insisted that while "the Soviet Union was a federal state and had the status of an entity of international law in its entirety in foreign affairs... this does not deny the fact that each member republic of the Soviet Union has the status of a sovereign state after the dissolution of the Soviet Union".
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is set to deliver a speech at Mansion House in London, where he will call on China to be transparent about its military expansion, which he describes as the biggest in peacetime history.
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The Foreign Secretary is tipped to warn of the risks of a new cold war with China and the possibility of a "tragic miscalculation" in the Indo-Pacific region if China continues its aggressive behaviour.
Despite his concerns about the situation in the Xinjiang region, he argues that Britain must continue to engage with China and that it would be a betrayal of British interests to isolate the country.
The speech comes amid rising tensions with Beijing over Taiwan and concerns that China will try to take over the island nation, similar to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The Telegraph reports that Mr Cleverely will say: "It would be clear and easy - perhaps even satisfying - for me to declare a new cold war and say that our goal is to isolate China.
"Clear, easy, satisfying - and wrong. Because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a wilful misunderstanding of the modern world."
The main topic of the Mansion House speech, a platform historically used by foreign secretaries to express their opinions on a wide range of foreign policy matters, will be China.
According to the Pentagon, China is growing its nuclear missile silos and on track to have a stockpile of 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035.
Furthermore, China is developing hypersonic missiles capable of evading US defences, as well as space weapons capable of deactivating satellites.
LinkChina must come clean on 'biggest military build-up in peacetime', warns James Cleverly
https://www.msn.com/en-GB/news/world/china-distances-itself-from-ambassadors-absurd-remarks-over-ukraine-independence/ar-AA1aiXBF
