Diplomacy: Canada expels Chinese diplomat over Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Canada on Monday expelled Toronto-based Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after he allegedly tried to target a Canadian lawmaker critical of China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
“We will not tolerate any form of foreign interference,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly declared on Monday.
According to intelligence inputs, Zhao Wei allegedly tried to target a Canadian lawmaker, Michael Chong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was critical of China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority in the Eastern Turkestan Province which Beijing has renamed Xinjiang (New Territory).
Chong’s Hong Kong-born father had immigrated to Canada in the 1950s.
The controversial diplomat’s expulsion has escalated already tense Sino-Canadian relations and may prompt China, Canada’s second-largest trading partner, to respond in kind.
China’s embassy in Ottawa condemned the expulsion and protested the move to the government.
“China will resolutely take countermeasures,” a spokesperson for the embassy in a statement posted on its website.
Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Professor of International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, said China is most likely to respond by expelling a Canadian diplomat.
A confidential report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2021 about Chinese influence in Canada included information about potential threats to Conservative Member of Parliament, Michael Chong and his family.
“It shouldn’t have taken two years for the government to make this decision,” Chong told reporters after the expulsion of the Chinese diplomat.
China claimed it never interfered in Canada’s internal affairs and has no interest in doing so. Beijing’s Toronto consulate-general said the report on Chong has “no factual basis and is purely baseless.”
Canadian media carried the CSIS report on May 1, stating that Beijing sought information about Chong and his family members in China in a possible effort to “make an example” of him and deter others from taking an anti-Chinese government position.
Citing an unnamed national security source, the media said Zhao was involved in gathering information about Chong, who in 2021 sponsored a successful motion condemning China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
Chong said he was “profoundly disappointed” to find out from a newspaper about the potential threat to his family members in Hong Kong, and criticized Trudeau’s government for inaction. He repeatedly called for Zhao’s expulsion since the intelligence report became public.
PM Trudeau said he ‘found out’ about the intelligence report from a newspaper, and on Wednesday blamed the spy agency for not passing it on him at the time. The agency has now been directed to immediately pass on information about threats to members of parliament and their families.
In recent years, Canadian media has carried several reports, citing anonymous intelligence sources, claiming schemes run by the Chinese government to interfere in Canada’s last two elections. Beijing has denied those allegations.
Earlier, PM Trudeau accused China of attempts to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 polls, and that the efforts did not change the outcome. He also appointed an independent special investigator to probe the allegations.
Diplomatic tensions between Canada and China have been running high since the detention of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and Beijing’s subsequent arrest of two Canadians on spying charges. All three were freed in 2021.
Last year, Beijing lifted a three-year ban on imports of canola, Canada’s largest crop, from trading companies Richardson International and Viterra. The restrictions followed Meng’s arrest, but China cited concerns about pests in the crop shipments as its reason for the ban. China is also a major importer of Canadian potash and wheat.
