Tensions are bristling between Canada and China, even more so now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has linked the Communist regime’s production of lithium to child labour.
China, in return, threatened severe consequences if Canada continues “denigrating maliciously” the human rights malaise in China.
“His words disregarded facts and confounded black with white. The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to this,” the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The embassy accused Trudeau of “political manipulation under the pretext of human rights” and seeking to undermine China.
“The Canadian side should respect facts, set aside prejudice, and stop denigrating maliciously the human rights situation in China, otherwise Canada will certainly take the consequences.”
“We urge Canada to take a hard look at itself in the mirror, deeply repent its wrongdoing, and take concrete steps to address its own serious human rights problems,” the embassy said.
Relations between Canada and China have soured for various reasons in recent years, most recently over allegations that Beijing tried to meddle in Canadian affairs in 2021 by targeting a federal lawmaker and his family.
This had Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly summoning China’s ambassador to Canada and reviewing the likely consequences of expelling the Chinese diplomat, Zhao Wei, accused of helping to target the family of highly respected Toronto Conservative MP Michael Chong.
“We’re assessing different options, including the expulsion of diplomats, because it is important that we take a decision,” Joly told the foreign affairs committee Thursday.
The move came after the Globe and Mail reported Monday that China sought information about Chong in a likely effort to “make an example” of him and “deter others from taking anti-PRC positions.”
The Chinese consulate in Toronto denied the report.
Joly’s comments, however, did little to appease Chong, who accused the government of sending the wrong signal to foreign adversaries by not acting more swiftly and decisively on foreign interference.
“We are basically putting up a giant billboard for all authoritarian states around the world that says we are open for foreign interference threat activities on Canadian soil targeting Canadian citizens, and you can conduct these activities with zero consequences,” he said.
“That’s why this individual needs to be sent packing.”
The prime minister said Wednesday that the information about Chong was never shared outside of CSIS, but that he has asked the spy agency to share more information with the federal government about threats to members of Parliament.
On Monday, the Globe, citing a 2021 top-secret CSIS document and an anonymous national security source, reported that China’s intelligence agency was seeking information about an unnamed Canadian MP’s relatives “who may be located in the PRC, for further potential sanctions.”
But Chong, the MP at the centre of the case, said Trudeau’s response raises serious concerns about his grip on intelligence and security matters.
“We asked what happened to that information, was it ever briefed up out of CSIS? It was not. CSIS made the determination that it wasn’t something that needed be raised to a higher level because it wasn’t a significant enough concern,” Trudeau said.
But Chong shared new information during Question Period on Thursday, suggesting that is not true.
The MP said the current national security and intelligence adviser to the prime minister, Jody Thomas, who has been on the job for a year, told him Thursday that CSIS shared its 2021 assessment with relevant departments and with her predecessor.
“This report contained information that and I and other MPs were being targeted by the [People’s Republic of China,]” said Chong.
“This contradicts what the prime minister said yesterday.”
