China's Foreign Ministry deleted interview of ambassador to France who questioned former USSR republics' independence

The embassy initially published the full transcript of Lu Shaye’s interview in Chinese and French on its official WeChat account on April 24 in the morning. However, by noon Beijing time, the transcript had been removed, with links indicating that the content had been removed by the author. 

The interview was also not published on the embassy's official website.

In an interview with the French television company LCI, which was broadcast on April 21, Lu Shaye said that "some countries of the former Soviet Union do not have an effective status under international law".

The comments angered the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which said they would summon Chinese diplomats to their capitals to seek an explanation. EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell called the statement unacceptable.

At the same time, at a briefing on April 24, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she was unaware of the situation. She added that China "respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the collapse of the USSR" and emphasized that Beijing's position is unchanged.

• On April 21, during a speech on a French TV channel, Lu Shaye questioned the sovereignty of the former Soviet republics.
• This caused outrage in Ukraine, and the governments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia summoned Lu Shaye’s colleagues, the Chinese ambassadors to these countries.
• On April 23, 80 members of the European Parliament appealed to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna to grant persona non grata status to Lu Shaye and expel him from the country.