Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly on Thursday said the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker.
Joly said her department had summoned the Chinese ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada would not tolerate such interference.
She said the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong (莊文浩) and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record.
Photo: Reuters
“We’re assessing different options, including the expulsion of diplomats,” Joly said before a parliamentary committee.
Canada’s spy agency has not released details publicly.
Chong has said the report identifies a Toronto-based diplomat as being part of the plot. Chong has been critical of Beijing’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
“I cannot imagine the shock and concern of learning that your loved ones have been targeted in this way,” Joly told Chong at the committee hearing. “There will be consequences.”
Chong said the diplomat should be on the first plane out of Canada.
“It is inexplicable that this diplomat hasn’t been told to leave the country already,” he said.
“If we do not take this course of action we are basically putting up a giant billboard for all authoritarian states around world that says we are open to foreign interference targeting Canadian citizens. That’s why this individual needs to be sent packing,” he said.
Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu (叢培武) denied interference in a statement and warned against expelling its diplomats.
“Once again, China strongly urges the Canadian side to immediately stop this self-directed political farce, and not go further down the wrong and dangerous path. Should the Canadian side continue to make provocations, China will play along every step of the way until the very end,” Cong said.
In Beijing, China slammed what it called “groundless slander and defamation” after Ottawa summoned its Chinese ambassador.
“China is strongly dissatisfied with Canada’s groundless slander and defamation of the normal performance of duties by the Chinese embassy and consulates in Canada and firmly opposes it,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said yesterday.
Beijing had “lodged a strong protest” against the move with Canada’s ambassador to China, she said.
Mao said the claims were “completely nonsense and a political farce based on ideological prejudice.”
Citing previous disagreements between the two countries that had “seriously damaged China’s interests,” Mao said: “It is entirely legitimate and necessary for China to respond forcefully.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said that he did not learn of the spy agency report until a Globe and Mail article on Monday, citing top-secret documents, said the spy agency had the intelligence.
However, Chong told parliament that Canada’s national security adviser informed him the 2021 report went to various points in government, including to the national security adviser at the time.
Trudeau has ordered Canada’s intelligence agencies to immediately inform lawmakers of any threats against them, regardless of whether those threats are considered credible.
Canada’s spy agency did not tell Chong about the targeting of his family until this week.
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