It looked less like a walk-back and more like a leap: China has firmly distanced itself from remarks made by its ambassador to France which sparked outrage in Europe. On Friday, Beijing's envoy Lu Shaye questioned the sovereignty of former Soviet countries in an interview with French broadcaster TF1, saying they have no "effective status" under international law.

Brussels branded the comments "unacceptable" and on Monday, European Union members Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia summoned respective Chinese representatives to demand explanation.

"We're not post-Soviet countries, we were illegally occupied by the Soviet Union," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU counterparts Monday.

China 'respects ex-Soviet states' sovereignty'

China soon sought to smooth out the spat: Its embassy in Paris published a statement Monday saying Lu Shaye's remarks "were not a political declaration but an expression of personal points of view during a televized debate."

"After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the countries concerned," the statement said. "China has always worked to develop relations of friendship and bilateral cooperation with them according to the principles of mutual respect and equality."

That seemed to be enough to settle the matter for Brussels. Asked by DW whether China could reliably play a role in peace for Ukraine if senior officials hold such views, The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell told reporters: "I'm not going to get involved in that. … There may be other problems but I believe this incident has now been duly clarified."

An 'irritant' in already rocky relations

There are other problems. Weinian Hu, a researcher on EU-China relations with the Center for European Policy Studies, told DW this latest upset is more of an "irritant" than a full-blown spat. But she notes relations have been turbulent for years.

One big bone of contention reached boiling point in 2021, when the two sides traded sanctions in a tit-for-tat move sparked by EU accusations of rights abuses in China's Xinjiang province. Ever since, progress on an investment agreement penned to boost economic ties has been frozen.

Then in 2022, the EU lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over alleged economic coercion toward its member Lithuania at the hands of Beijing.China denies using coercive tactics, but has criticized Lithuania and downgraded diplomatic ties over the Baltic country allowing Taiwan to open what was seen as a de facto embassy in its capital Vilnius in 2021. That sparked ire in Beijing, which views the island as part of its territory.

Part of a worrying pattern

It was within that context that Lithuania withdrew from China's club for relations with Central and Eastern European nations, once known as the 17+1 format. Divisions over Russia's war in Ukraine have since driven an even deeper wedge between Europe and China and in 2022, Latvia and Estonia followed Lithuania to the exit.

The club is now down to 14+1, with Czechia, Romania, Poland and Slovakia among those still officially on the books. But Andrew Small, Senior Fellow with the German Marshall Fund, says the format is already "virtually a dead institution walking." There have been no summits since 2021 and Small thinks ambassador Lu's recent comments will "reinforce concerns" from some European members.

"The remarks touch a nerve because they seem to indicate something deeper, which is a sympathy in the Chinese government for some of the more expansively revisionist positions of Putin – essentially mirroring his view of the collapse of the Soviet Union as a ‘geopolitical catastrophe'," Small told DW.

"I wouldn't exaggerate the significance of Lu's remarks, but they're being treated as part of a worrying pattern."

EU to review China policy

Whatever the future of the 14+1 club, the EU is often accused of disunity over its dealings with China. French President Emmanuel Macron caught global headlines during a recent visit to China during which told several news outlets the EU should not be a "follower" on the controversial topic of Taiwan.

In an apparent rebuff, one EU diplomat who asked not to be named said there should be "no misconception" about "who is our ally… and who is our systemic rival. The diplomat said forging unity among EU members on China policy was crucial: "If we don't do that, they'll have us for lunch," they said.

Researcher Weinian Hu thinks different points of view are to be expected among 27 different countries, especially given some policy areas such as education, culture or health are managed in capitals rather than in Brussels.

And Brussels insists it wants to keep engaging with China. On Monday, foreign affairs chief Borrell said the bloc wanted to work with China to combat climate change. "Global challenges cannot be solved without China," he said.

But a meatier discussion on how to approach EU-China ties in future will soon be back on the table of the bloc's 27 members. Borrell said Monday a review of the EU's so-called policy triptych — under which it considers Beijing a partner, a competitor and a "systemic rival" all at once — will soon be underway.

"We are updating and recalibrating our strategy toward China as it was defined in 2019," he told reporters. EU foreign ministers are expected to pick up the discussion when they meet in Sweden in May.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer