Ottawa’s recent expulsion of a Chinese diplomat for threatening the family of a Canadian MP is a rare move in recent years, despite intelligence reports of Chinese diplomats blatantly interfering in Canada’s elections and key institutions and bluntly insulting or threatening Canadians.
Amid opposition parties’ calls for action to address threats to the Hong Kong-based family of Conservative MP Michael Chong, the Liberal government on May 8 declared Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei persona non grata, a move that Beijing reciprocated a day later by expelling a Canadian diplomat.
Zhao had reportedly targeted Chong because the MP had sponsored a parliamentary motion in 2021 to declare China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities a genocide.
Although the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had produced reports on this matter at the time, there are conflicting claims by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his past and current national security advisers, and CSIS itself as to whether the information was shared through the right channels to reach the PM. What’s known is that the government took action once the issue was reported by media and later confirmed by CSIS.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in March that the government had denied a visa to a representative of the Chinese regime last fall because the person was a “political operative.” She said at the time that it’s easier to prevent entry than to later expel a diplomat.
The last time Canada publicly expelled a Chinese diplomat was in 2006, when the federal government sent Wang Pengfei home for harassing the Chinese community in Canada. The Epoch Times, which broke the story at the time, reported that Wang had been collecting information on Falun Gong adherents in Canada and inciting Chinese international students to help him in the efforts against the group, which is heavily persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
That was in the early days of the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, who had been hawkish on the China file. At the time, China was on its way to becoming an emerging power, enriching its coffers after the West allowed it to become a member of the World Trade Organization and setting up huge trade deficits for flight of capital to China.
As the regime became richer and more aggressive on the world stage, its influence activities in Canada and the targeting of the diaspora became more blatant a decade later. But the expulsions of diplomats didn’t keep pace.
Conservative member of Parliament Michael Chong speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 3, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Liberal MPs on May 8 voted against a motion sponsored by Conservative MP Michael Cooper that in part asked for the expulsion of all Chinese diplomats responsible for intimidation tactics against Chinese Canadians. The non-binding motion passed with the support of all opposition parties. The resolution also calls for the creation of a foreign agent registry similar to the one in the United States and Australia, a public inquiry into election interference, and the closure of Chinese police stations in Canada.
As of March 2023, there were 138 Chinese diplomats in Canada, second only to the number of diplomats from the United States, Canada’s closest ally and neighbour to the south, with 169 representatives. As comparison, the UK has 33 diplomats stationed in Canada.
Interference
After reports emerged of secret police stations operating in Canada, Conservatives MP Raquel Dancho asked officials if anyone had been arrested or had their diplomatic credentials removed, to which government officials responded no.
A Feb. 17 Globe and Mail article, citing CSIS documents and national security officials, said China’s then-consul general in Vancouver Tong Xiaoling had bragged in 2021 that she helped defeat two MPs representing the Conservative Party in the 2021 election. The article added that Chinese diplomats had said they wanted the Liberals to win, as they saw the party more favourable to the regime’s interests. It added that Beijing had instructed its diplomats to propagate the idea that, if elected, the Conservatives would ban Chinese international students from universities in Canada.
Another Globe article, published Feb. 28, said a Chinese diplomat in 2014 had asked a CCP-linked businessman to donate a large sum of money to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation after Justin Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party in 2013, adding that the Chinese regime would reimburse the sum to the businessman.
A November 2022 Global News article citing intelligence sources said the CCP had funded at least 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election and placed agents in MPs’ offices to influence policy-making. The article added that the Chinese Consulate in Toronto directed an election-campaign staff member to monitor candidates’ meetings and to prevent engagements with representatives of Taiwan.
China watchers and the Opposition have been asking the Liberal government if any Chinese diplomats will be expelled given the extent of Beijing’s interference in Canada.
The Chinese Consulate in Vancouver in a file photo. (Melodie Von/NTD)
“We must be prepared to expel Chinese diplomats involved in interference or harassment,” Canada’s former envoy to China David Mulroney told the Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Jan. 7. “Our failure to do so only encourages increasingly brazen meddling. This will trigger retaliation, but we must make it clear that expulsion is the inevitable consequence of such hostile behaviour.”
Canada’s most recent prior case of sending a foreign diplomat home goes back to 2018, when it expelled or rejected the credentials of seven Russian representatives in solidarity with the United Kingdom. This followed Russian agents having used nerve agent attacks against a political dissident in the UK.
Threats
After Canada declared the Chinese diplomat involved in the threat to MP Chong’s family persona non grata, China warned on May 8 that it “will take resolute countermeasures and all consequences arising therefrom shall be borne by the Canadian side.” This was followed by the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat the next day.
China warned Canada of serious consequences in December 2018 when Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request from the United States. Shortly thereafter, China arbitrarily detained two Canadian citizens and held them in confinement for over 1,000 days. It also escalated the penalty given to several Canadians being held on drug charges to the death sentence, and dealt a major blow to the export sector by blocking imports of key agricultural products from Canada into China.
Throughout this episode, Ottawa didn’t limit any of China’s diplomatic operations in Canada. This was while China limited consular access to Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor who were detained in China in retaliation for Meng’s arrest.
In 2020, then-Conservative leader Erin O'Toole asked the Liberal government to withdraw the credentials of Chinese Ambassador Cong Peiwu if he doesn’t publicly apologize because of his threat against Canadians in Hong Kong.
A man holds a sign with photographs of Canadian citizen Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor during rally in support of Hong Kong democracy in Vancouver on Aug. 16, 2020. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Cong had said that if Canada “cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong,” it should keep quiet and not support the protesters in Hong Kong against Beijing’s suppression.
A year before, when then-foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland issued a joint statement with European Union officials on the protests in Hong Kong, Chinese officials singled her out by name, without mentioning the European officials, condemning her for the statement.
A Chinese diplomat in Brazil in 2021 called Canada “a running dog of the US,” referring to Trudeau as a “boy.”
Among many retaliatory threats by Cong against Canada during his tenure, one was his promise of “countermeasures” after two Conservative senators introduced a motion to sanction Chinese officials for rights violations under the Magnitsky Law. Leo Housakos, one of the senators behind the motion, said Canada shouldn’t be tolerating threats from the Chinese regime.
“Nothing is more egregious than the Chinese ambassador threatening the Canadian government,” he told The Epoch Times at the time.
Cong’s predecessor, Lu Shaye, called Canada and its allies white supremacists for demanding the release of Kovrig and Spavor.
Ottawa has so far used its Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky Law, to sanction individuals in Russia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia for human rights violations. The law has not been used to sanction Chinese officials since its adoption in 2017.
