Beijing/Paris. The war in Ukraine and the differences between China and Taiwan represent two extremely sensitive topics for their respective diplomats.
China announced on Sunday that it has filed a complaint with Seoul over South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “wrong” comments about Taiwan. For its part, Ukraine took issue with the Chinese ambassador to France over controversial comments.
Beijing and Seoul have exchanged criticism after an interview by Yoon with the Reuters agency in which he described the tensions between China and Taiwan as a “global issue” similar to that of North Korea and blamed China for “trying to change the status quo for the force”.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice Minister Sun Weidong was ordered on Thursday to make a “solemn representation” to the South Korean ambassador over Yoon’s remarks.
Sun told the ambassador that Yoon’s statement was “totally unacceptable” and expressed “strong dissatisfaction,” according to the ministry.
The Taiwan issue “belongs to the Chinese themselves and interference from any force cannot be allowed,” Sun said, urging Seoul to “adhere to the one-China principle and be careful with its words and actions on the Taiwan issue.” “.
“absurd version”
For its part, the Ukrainian government on Sunday denounced an “absurd version” of the history of Crimea, annexed in 2014 by Russia, following controversial statements by the Chinese ambassador to France.
The controversy sparked after an interview by Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, on Friday for the French news channel LCI.
Asked if Crimea was Ukrainian, Lu replied: “It depends on how you look at the problem. There is a history. Crimea was Russian at the beginning.”
He argued that the countries that emerged as independent nations after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 “have no effective status under international law because there is no international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations.”
Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, reacted: “It is strange to hear an absurd version, of the history of Crimea, from a representative of a country that is scrupulous about its millennial history.”
“All the countries of the former USSR have a clear sovereign status enshrined in international law,” he added, calling on Lu Shaye “not to repeat Russian propaganda.”
