China’s ambassador to Paris asked to be declared persona non grata for speaking about Crimea

About 80 MEPs have approached French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna with a proposal to declare Chinese Ambassador to Paris Liu Shaye persona non grata. The newspaper reported Le Monde April 23 with reference to the letter of parliamentarians.

The reason for the appeal was the words of the Chinese ambassador that “there is no international agreement on the materialization of the status” of the former republics of the USSR, and Crimea has always been Russian.

“Reacting to the statements of the Chinese Ambassador to France, who during an interview on LCI denied the sovereignty of the countries of the Soviet Union, almost 80 European parliamentarians called on the Foreign Minister at the forum in Le Monde not to remain unanswered,” says the newspaper article.

Parliamentarians believe that Liu Shaye’s comment goes beyond “acceptable diplomatic discourse.”