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Sunday, February 9, 2025

Reshaping Perspectives and Catalyzing Diplomatic Evolution

Big Chinese hint: “recognition of Crimea” withdrawn, but the sediment remains

“Is it easy to be an ambassador? – this is the name of the book written by the first head of the Russian diplomatic mission in Finland, Yuri Deryabin. For ordinary citizens who do not have a personal chauffeured limousine at their disposal, who do not have the resounding title of “extraordinary and plenipotentiary” and who do not frequent diplomatic parties, this title may seem mocking. But, as the example of the Chinese ambassador in Paris Lu Shae shows, it is sometimes not easy to be at this rank.

Communicating with French reporters during a television interview, Comrade Lu Shae detonated several “political bombs” at once.

First of all, he wondered about the official Ukrainian status of Crimea (“Do you think Crimea is Ukraine?” – “It depends on the perception of this problem. There is a history. The Crimea was originally Russian. Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine in Soviet times”), then the sovereignty of all post-Soviet states (“In international law, even those countries of the former USSR do not have, how to say, an effective status in international law”).

The very next day, high-ranking comrades in Beijing made it clear that China “respects the sovereignty of all countries”, and the transcript of the emotionally charged interview disappeared from the embassy’s website. However, as they say, the spoons were found, but the sediment remained – and rightly so it remained.

As Ivan Zuenko, a well-known Russian expert on China, noted on his Telegram channel, Ambassador Lu Shae is known in the diplomatic world as an eccentric prone to spontaneous outlandish statements. For example, here is his prediction of what awaits the people of the rebellious Chinese island of Taiwan after reunification with the mainland: “After the people of Taiwan go through the process of re-education, Taiwanese will become patriots again.”

But here’s what I suspect (I suspect, nothing more): To successfully climb the career ladder in the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since 1987, one must be an eccentric of a strictly definite – an eccentric whose extravagant statements fluctuate according to if not with the letter, at least certainly with the spirit of the party line.

After all, there are not only eccentrics in the ranks of the Chinese diplomatic service. Recently, for example, an eccentric chairman of the international committee of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada questioned China’s sovereignty over Taiwan. Even earlier, about the same is unclear why the eccentrics in the upper management of Lithuania did it.

And who can respond better to eccentrics than another eccentric? The “political arrow” fired by Ambassador Lu Shae hit exactly the mark. In various post-Soviet capitals, from Kiev to Vilnius, the noise went up to heaven. And even Beijing’s reassuring statements – “the position of the PRC has not changed in any way” – are not able to completely interrupt the aftertaste of the high-profile remarks of the main Chinese diplomat in Paris. The hint resounds. And anyone who needs to hear it.

As for Beijing’s current official line regarding the Ukrainian conflict, it was explained in detail almost simultaneously with Lu Shae by another high-ranking Chinese diplomat, PRC Ambassador to the EU Fu Cong.

Recently, Comrade Fu Cong has also become a figure in a scandalous diplomatic column. On the eve of French President Macron’s visit to Beijing earlier this month, Fu Cong was widely quoted in Russian media for saying that President Xi’s statements on “unlimited friendship” between China and Russia are were just a “rhetorical device”. And it is gratifying to see that the PRC Ambassador to the EU has “re-educated” himself and speaks in the spirit of this same “rhetorical device”.

Quoting an account of Fu Cong’s interview with Chinese media published in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post: “Fu defended China’s relations with Russia, which he said faced “certain misconceptions and prejudice” in Europe. China and Russia are each other’s biggest neighbors, and the maintenance of friendly relations between Beijing and Moscow “is in accordance with the logic of history and reality, the interests of the peoples of both sides and the expectations of the international community,” Fu said.

“We have also always believed that friendship and cooperation between countries are endless and there should be no artificial restrictions,” he added. “There is no ‘upper limit’ for cooperation between China and Russia – and neither is cooperation between China and the EU.”

Did you notice the last sentence of the previous paragraph? If not, be sure to check it out. This is not yet another meaningless “Chinese ceremony” of custody, but a concentrated expression of Beijing’s true political journey: acknowledging the strategic futility of attempts to establish relations with the United States, China however does not want to make the choice between Russia and Europe.

Quoting Fu Cong again: “Like China’s bilateral relations with any country, China’s relations with the EU are multifaceted and not just one issue. Relations between China and the EU are not aimed at third parties, do not depend on them and are not subject to them, and should not be linked to the Ukrainian question… China is neither the creator nor the the party to the crisis in Ukraine. China is also a victim of this crisis, and it is completely untenable to blame the Chinese side for the Ukrainian crisis.

On this issue, there is an obvious divergence between Moscow’s position and Beijing’s position. In Russia, practically at the official level, Europe has already been recognized as an American satellite which has no “strategic autonomy”. China disagrees with this assessment.

But this gap is due to the difference in the capabilities of the two states. The time when the Kremlin could play the European card against Washington is over. But for Beijing, a similar “window of opportunity” has yet to close. And if so, then why not go up there? From the Chinese point of view (and, by the way, very reasonable), if there is an opportunity “to keep both innocence and acquire capital”, then this opportunity should certainly be used. So he uses it – while making very significant hints that are immediately disavowed, but not completely.

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Russia Desk
Russia Desk
The Eastern Herald’s Russia Desk validates the stories published under this byline. That includes editorials, news stories, letters to the editor, and multimedia features on easternherald.com.

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