It was a waste of time to debate whether the Communist regime of China would retaliate following Canada’s expulsion of the Chinese diplomat suspected of intimidating Tory MP Michael Chong.
A tit-for-tat was a done deal the moment China’s Zhao Wei was declared “persona non grata” and given the boot from Canada.
China would see this as an act of provocation, and China does not take provocation very well.
Hence, China on Tuesday ordered the removal of Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, Canada’s diplomat in its Shanghai Consulate.
“China reserves the right to further react,” Beijing said in a statement.
The censures mark a significant deterioration in relations between Ottawa and Beijing following reports of alleged Chinese political interference in Canada.
Canada had accused China of targeting Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong after Chong accused China of human rights abuses.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained since the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, held in Canada on U.S. fraud charges in 2018, and China’s tit-for-tat arrest of the two Michaels, Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, on trumped-up spying charges.
All three were freed in 2021.
On Monday, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolly finally declared Zhao a “persona non grata,” a Latin phrase for an “unwelcome person,” a move China called “unscrupulous” and the reason Lalonde was declared the same as a “reciprocal countermeasure.”
“I have been clear: we will 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 behaviour, they will be sent home,” wrote Joly.
“This decision has been taken after careful consideration of all factors at play. We remain firm in our resolve that defending our democracy is of the utmost importance.”
The move by Ottawa follows a Canadian intelligence report exposed by the Globe and Mail that accused Zhao of being involved in gathering information about the 51-year-old Chong following his vocal criticism China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority population.
It said Canada’s spy agency, CSIS, believes China sought details about Chong’s relatives in Hong Kong in an effort to deter any further “anti-China positions.”
Two months ago, as Mehmet Tohti told a parliamentary committee reported on by the CBC, he was in the middle of campaigning to resettle Uyghur refugees in Canada when he received a disturbing phone call.
“I was told that my two sisters are dead and so was my mother, the whereabouts of my three brothers and their spouses and the children unknown,” he told the committee Friday.
“Beijing is watching every day with the threat of intimidation and harassment.”
It was just one example of what another witness described as a relentless campaign against those who speak out against the Chinese Communist Party.
“China controls everything,” said Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China.
“Even if you change your cellphone, they can quickly find you.”
Kwan said he and others have been trying to sound the alarm for years.
“They also harass and intimidate Canadians who are critical of China, activists, dissidents and human rights defenders, rendering the Chinese Canadian community the real victims of this game,” he said.
The threats are sometimes subtle but always clear, Kwan said.
“You get a phone call in the middle of day asking, ‘So, how are your parents doing back in Sichuan, China?'” he said.
Kwan, a filmmaker, told the same committee he was targeted back in 2005 on a trip to Hong Kong for a festival.
“I was followed,” he said. “And I was questioned during the Q&A period by (someone who) seemed to be an agent of the Chinese communist regime. These are little things — you know that I know that you know that I am watching you.”
Their stories come amid renewed interest into alleged Chinese interference in Canada’s elections — and questions about whether the Liberal party was briefed on it as long as two years ago.
If two years, why so long for an expulsion?
