Canada summoned the Chinese ambassador to the country on Thursday to discuss Beijing’s intimidation accusations of a Canadian lawmaker who criticized Xi Jinping’s regimeand could also retaliate by expelling diplomats.
“My vice minister has met with the Chinese ambassador, we have summoned him,” declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Jollybefore a parliamentary committee.
“We are evaluating different options, including the expulsion of diplomats,” added the Canadian diplomat.
The Conservative MP michael chong and his family, that live in Hong Kong, would have received pressure for their criticism of Beijing.
The newspaper The Globe and Mail released a report on Monday claiming that Ottawa had turned a blind eye to the Chinese regime’s meddling in Canadian affairs.
Citing classified documents and an anonymous security source, the newspaper said China’s intelligence agency had planned to sanction Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong for voting in February 2021 for a motion condemning Beijing’s conduct in Xinjiang as genocide.
The objective was “certainly to give an example to this deputy and to dissuade other deputies from adopting anti-Chinese positions”according to a document from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
A diplomatic official at the Chinese consulate in Toronto would be involved in the case.
“This person should be declared persona non grata immediately,” Chong told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeaufaces mounting pressure to take a hard line on the Asian giant following revelations that China tried to influence the results of Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections.
The allegations, which Beijing has denied, have been the focus of parliamentary committee hearings and investigations by the Electoral Agency of Canada.
Federal police have also dismantled several illegal Chinese police stations in Canada, allegedly set up to harass Chinese expatriates.
In response to Chong’s accusations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, mao ningHe said: “China has always been opposed to any country interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.”
“We have never had nor do we have an interest in interfering in the internal affairs of Canada,” he added.
last march Canada admitted that it denied entry to the country to a Chinese diplomat for fear of his interference in politics local. The episode occurred in the fall of 2002 and it was a subject -called a ‘political agent’- that the Chinese Communist Party he sought to send North America as an international link between the two nations.
The episode was revealed by Joly, during an appearance before a parliamentary committee that, coincidentally, investigates foreign interference in Canadian elections.
For its part, the local newspaper The Globe and Mail added that the authorities considered that the position of the official was high enough for him to it was a political and not a diplomatic missionwith the purpose of meddle in the Canadian democratic system.
In this sense, Joly herself pointed out that China “wanted to send a political agent”.
(With information from AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com