Crimean Gold and China's View on Russia

The Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, asserts that the former Soviet republics have “no effective status in international law” as “sovereign states”. He thus seems to deny the very existence of countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakhstan etc. Despite what the Chinese official thinks, it shuld be noted that all of these countries have their status recognised by being independent member states of the United Nations. What's interesting is that one of the few international court judgements on this matter involves cultural property (Crimean gold lent by Ukrainian museums before the 2014 invasion now being withheld from returning to Crimea under Russian occupation) .