China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced on May 9th that Canada’s consul in Shanghai will be expelled from the country in retaliation for Ottawa’s decision to send home a Chinese diplomat who was accused of trying to intimidate a lawmaker. The move has sparked a new diplomatic row between the two nations, and China has warned Canada to stop “unreasonable provocations.” The Chinese embassy in Canada issued a statement calling on Ottawa to “step back from the brink” and warned that “resolute countermeasures” would be taken. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly stated that the government would not tolerate any form of foreign interference in its internal affairs, and that foreign diplomats who engage in such behavior will be sent home.
The diplomatic dispute arose following reports in the local media that China’s intelligence agency had planned to target parliamentarian Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong with sanctions for voting in February 2021 in favor of a motion condemning Beijing’s conduct in the Xinjiang region as genocide. The Globe and Mail newspaper cited a Canadian Security Intelligence Service document stating that this was “almost certainly meant to make an example of this MP and deter others from taking anti-PRC (People’s Republic of China) positions.”
The tensions between China and Canada have been simmering for some time, and several incidents have worsened the situation. For example, in 2018, Canada arrested a top Huawei executive and detained two Canadian nationals in China in apparent retaliation. All three have since been released, but the relationship between the two countries remains strained.
The situation has sparked calls from some quarters for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take a tough stance against China. Critics have also highlighted rumors of foreign meddling in Canadian elections. Genevieve Tellier, a politics professor at the University of Ottawa, has said that there was a real political risk for the Trudeau government in this affair, which is taking a gamble by showing its muscles in this way.
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