China yesterday announced the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa ordering a Chinese consular official to leave the country over threats he allegedly made against a Canadian lawmaker and his family.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China was deploying a “reciprocal countermeasure to Canada’s unscrupulous move,” which it said it “firmly opposes.”
It said Jennnifer Lynn Lalonde, the top Canadian diplomat in Shanghai, has been asked to leave by Saturday and that China “reserves the right to take further actions in response.”
Photo: EPA
The Canadian embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment on the expulsion order.
Ottawa earlier in the day said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is expelling a Chinese diplomat whom Canada’s spy agency alleged was involved in a plot to intimidate an opposition lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong.
A senior Canadian government official said that Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei (趙巍) has five days to leave the country. It was not immediately clear if Zhao was still in Canada.
Photo: AP
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said in a statement that Canada declared Zhao persona non grata and that Canada would “not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs.”
“Diplomats in Canada have been warned that if they engage in this type of behavior, they will be sent home,” Joly said.
Canada’s spy service indicated that in 2021, opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong (莊文浩) and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record.
Canada’s spy agency has not released details publicly.
Chong has been critical of Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur ethnic group in China’s Xinjiang region, hundreds of thousands of whom have been detained in prison-like political “re-education” camps.
China says attendance at what it calls vocational training centers is purely voluntary.
Chong said Zhao’s expulsion should have happened years ago.
“I hope that this makes it clear not just to the People’s Republic of China, but other authoritarian states who have representation here in Canada, that this crossing the line of diplomacy into foreign interference threat activities is utterly unacceptable here on Canadian soil,” Chong said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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