By Laurie Chen and Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING (Reuters) -China has named controversial diplomat and ex-ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, as Special Representative for European Affairs, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Lu, 60, earned a reputation for making frequent combative statements during his five-year tenure as Beijing’s envoy to Paris, which ended in December. These included his 2023 claim that ex-Soviet states had “no effective status in international law”, which angered numerous European Union member states.
Lu will promote dialogue and cooperation with Europe and “contribute to the stable and healthy development of China-EU relations”, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a press briefing.
His appointment comes when China-Europe relations are at an inflection point, after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped 10% tariffs on China and threatened tariffs on Europe last week as part of his isolationist agenda. He has also repeatedly suggested he wants to buy Greenland, a territory of Denmark.
As transatlantic ties come under strain, China hawks such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are showing signs of willingness to rethink the relationship between Beijing and Brussels, a bond that had badly deteriorated over trade tensions and China’s ties with Russia.
In response, China’s foreign ministry yesterday said it is willing to work with Brussels to respond to “global challenges” after von der Leyen said on Tuesday and at Davos that both sides should “find solutions” of mutual interest – a marked shift in tone on China.
However, Lu’s controversial past comments caused many diplomats to react with surprise to the appointment.
“We still very much remember the Baltic states remark,” said a Beijing-based European diplomat, asking to remain anonymous.
In 2022, Lu suggested during a television interview that Taiwanese people would undergo “re-education” after China takes over the democratic self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he publicly called French analyst Antoine Bondaz a “crazed hyena” and “little rascal”, while his embassy published an article falsely claiming that French nursing home staff abandoned patients to die of the coronavirus.
So far, there has been no sign of Lu being publicly disciplined by Beijing for his remarks. China’s embassy in Paris previously said that his comments on ex-Soviet states were “an expression of personal views”, while the foreign ministry later distanced itself by saying that China respects the “sovereign status” of all ex-Soviet countries.
Lu replaces Wu Hongbo, 72, who was appointed to the role in 2019 when it was first created. The veteran French-speaking diplomat previously served as ambassador to Canada and Senegal.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Laurie Chen; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
