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Canada Expels Chinese Diplomat


FILE - Member of Parliament Michael Chong speaks at a Conservative Party of Canada debate in Toronto, April 26, 2017. A Canadian intelligence report in 2021 said there had been potential threats to Chong and his family involving Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei.
FILE - Member of Parliament Michael Chong speaks at a Conservative Party of Canada debate in Toronto, April 26, 2017. A Canadian intelligence report in 2021 said there had been potential threats to Chong and his family involving Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei.

Canada has expelled a Chinese diplomat accused of attempting to intimidate a Canadian lawmaker who has been critical of Beijing.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly issued a statement Monday saying Zhao Wei had been declared “persona non grata” in response to a series of reports in Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper that Zhou sought information about Conservative Party lawmaker Michael Chong, who sponsored a motion to declare China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority as genocide.

The reports said Canada’s intelligence agency had uncovered information that China planned to target Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong with sanctions and possible threats.

Foreign Minister Joly said Ottawa “will not tolerate any form of foreign interference.” She said foreign diplomats working in Canada have been warned “that if they engage in this type of behavior, they will be sent home.”

China’s foreign ministry in Beijing announced early Tuesday that it had declared Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, the consul for the Canadian consulate in Shanghai, “persona non grata” and ordered her to leave China by May 13. Lalonde’s expulsion came hours after China’s embassy in Ottawa said China will take “resolute countermeasures” in response to Zhou’s expulsion.

The allegations about Zhou came amid a series of reports by The Globe and Mail and other news outlets on China’s alleged attempts to influence the 2018 and 2021 Canadian general elections. Both stories were based on information gathered by Canada’s intelligence agency.

China has denied the allegations.

Zhou’s expulsion will likely worsen already tense bilateral relations between Beijing and Ottawa, which turned sour in 2018 when Canadian authorities arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, on a U.S. warrant. Two Canadian nationals were detained in China in apparent retaliation.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.

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