Posting in Paris from 2019 to the beginning of January 2025, Lu Shaye was appointed by China “special representative of the Chinese government for European affairs,” said on Thursday, February 7 during a regular press point Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He “will assist and coordinate the management” of Europe files and “will conduct consultations and exchanges with European countries and the institutions of the European Union” (EU), he said.
The exact extent of its powers was not defined immediately. For comparison, his predecessor Wu Hongbo spoke publicly in the name of China on cases related to Europe. He had also made numerous visits to EU countries, or for example he had defended sino-Russian relations in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Controversial declarations
Long considered as one of the figures of an offensive and sometimes irreverent Chinese diplomacy, known as “wolf combatants”, his mandate in France was marked by several controversial declarations emanating from his embassy, far from the usual diplomatic language, in particular against French researchers, journalists and parliamentarians.
In April 2020, the embassy criticized the management of the Cavid-19 pandemic in Europe. She had accused the staff of “Ehpad” of having “abandoned their posts” and let “die their residents of hunger and illness”. The embassy then explained that he had not targeted France but Spain, where the army had found people who died in this type of establishment.
In 2023, during an interview on the LCI news channel, Lu Shaye had aroused controversy by seeming to deny the validity of the sovereignty of the ex-Soviet republics. These two episodes had led to his summons to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lu Shaye is a “high-ranking diplomat who knows the situation in Europe well” and “we are convinced” that he will contribute “to the stable and healthy development of China-EU relations,” spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Thursday.