2023-05-09 17:59:57
Canadian diplomat Jennifer Lynn Lalonde has until May 13 to pack her bags. This Tuesday, May 9, China declared persona non grata the consul stationed in Shanghai. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said hours later that Canada will not stand “to intimidate” and he won’t accepts “foreign interference”.
The day before, Ottawa announced the expulsion of Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat accused of pressuring Conservative MP Michael Chong. The latter had been involved in the vote by Parliament of a non-binding motion to qualify “genocide” China’s treatment of Uyghurs. Beijing then took sanctions against him.
In response to the accusations, a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy advised Ottawa to “stop his unjustified provocations”pointing out that China could take “firm and energetic measures” if he “didn’t listen to this advice”.
The expulsion of Jennifer Lynn Lalonde is also the consequence of the revelations by the daily The Globe and Mail on Chinese interference in Canadian politics. Beijing would have sought to influence the last elections of 2019 and 2021, with campaign and candidate financing, to obtain the victory of the Liberal Party – that of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – against the Conservative Party, of Michael Chong, whose position is tougher on China.
Trudeau pushed for sanctions
The Chinese ambassador was already summoned by the foreign minister last week. Beijing considered these accusations to be “slanders” and “libel”. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since been heavily criticized. The Canadian opposition criticized him for his negligence on this file. ” There was (…) a real political danger for the Trudeau government. So he decided to take the risk of flexing his muscles.analysis with AFP Geneviève Tellier, professor of political studies at the University of Ottawa.
The relationship between the two countries has been strained for several years. In 2018, the arrest in Canada, at the request of American justice, of Huawei’s financial director, Meng Wanzhou, angered Beijing. A few days later, China imprisoned two Canadian nationals. While all were released after negotiations, the relationship between the two countries remained damaged. Last year, Canada banned Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from setting up their 5G network structures on its territory, following the United States’ position on mistrust of its Asian rival.
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