Baltic nations ask China to provide an explanation.

The scandal has erupted after Beijing's ambassador in Paris called into question the sovereignty of former Soviet republics. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have lodged a joint protest and demanded an explanation from Beijing. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics described Lu's comment as "unacceptable" and summoned the Chinese charges d'affaires in the three Baltic countries to provide explanations. Estonia's top diplomat Margus Tsahkna denounced Lu's assessment as "false" and a "misinterpretation of history". Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis noted that Beijing cannot be trusted as a peace broker in the Ukraine conflict.

The three Baltic states were part of the Russian Empire from the 18th century until the 1917 revolution and declared their independence a year later. In 1940, the Soviet Union deployed its military to the three countries, which saw local communists come to power. From 1941 until 1945, the Baltic states were occupied by Nazi Germany. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius have insisted that the decades of the Soviet rule