What Xi’s Confrontation With Trudeau at G20 Indicates: Experts, Politicians Weigh In

Chinese leader Xi Jinping speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 16, 2022. (Adam Scotti/Prime Minister's Office/Handout via Reuters)

There is a lot to unpack from Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s brief confrontation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Nov. 16. The incident was caught on camera, with Xi telling Trudeau that he shouldn’t have “leaked” to the media details of their conversation from the day before.

“In exchanges like this, body language is extremely important,” Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos wrote on Twitter.

Housakos was reacting to a comment by China expert Charles Burton that in one part of the exchange, Xi made a “menacing threat to Trudeau“ in Chinese that wasn’t translated, telling the prime minister, ”Otherwise, it is hard to say what will happen.”

The senator went on to write: “Couple Justin Trudeau’s body language with the additional threat outlined [by Burton] and there’s no way this can be characterized as anything other than our Prime Minister once again showing deference to a tyrant.”

Gloria Fung, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, said Xi’s comment was “a serious threat” to Canada’s prime minister.

“We need to stand firm on our principles, and we need to show that we dare to challenge China and its malign activities on Canadian soil,” she said in an interview.

A video of the two leaders’ brief interaction was captured by reporters at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

“Everything we discuss has been leaked to the paper; that’s not appropriate,” Xi said to Trudeau through an interpreter.

“That’s not how, the way the conversation was conducted. If there is sincerity on your part ...”

In response, Trudeau talked about the importance of “free and open” dialogue.

“We believe in free and open and frank dialogue and that is what we will continue to have. We will continue to look to work constructively together, but there will be things we will disagree on,” Trudeau said.

“Let’s create the conditions first,” Xi responded through the interpreter.

The two leaders shook hands after the brief conversation and went separate ways.

Xi’s remarks referred to his conversation with Trudeau on Nov. 15, also on the sidelines of the G20 summit. According to Trudeau’s office, the prime minister raised concerns about China’s interference in Canada, as well as media reports of unofficial Chinese police stations operating in Toronto.

The Prime Minister’s Office said he and Xi had also spoken about North Korea’s missile launches, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the U.N. summit on biodiversity that China is hosting in Montreal next month.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said the Nov. 16 confrontation was a “staged, public rebuke for the leader of a vassal state.”

In Ottawa, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said he was “pleased” that the prime minister was “standing up as he always does for Canada” and that “we won’t tolerate these types of things with respect to interference.”

He added that Canada should remain vigilant on the issue of election meddling.

“I think we need to interact with eyes wide open,” he said.

Michael Chong, the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, told reporters that he thinks Trudeau went to the summit “unprepared to represent Canada’s interests and values.”

Conservative MP Michael Cooper told The Epoch Times that Trudeau should have raised Canada’s concerns about Beijing’s interference “a long time ago.”

CCP Interference

A Nov. 7 Global News report alleged that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had warned Trudeau and several cabinet ministers, in a series of briefings and memos starting in January, about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference in Canada that can include “covert funding to influence election outcomes.”

The report states that at least 11 candidates, whose party affiliations weren’t disclosed, received CCP campaign funding in the 2019 federal election.

The Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to disclose the identity of those 11 candidates. The Tories have been critical of the Liberals’ approach to Canada-China relations, including the cabinet’s abstention from voting in a House of Commons motion recognizing China’s persecution of the Uyghur minority group as a genocide.

In recent comments about her government’s soon-to-be-announced Indo-Pacific strategy, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly described China as “an increasingly disruptive global power,” saying it “seeks to shape the global environment into one that is more permissive for interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”

She acknowledged that China is guilty of human rights abuses, but also said Canada has trade ties with the country and that she believes “in diplomacy.”

“There’s $100 billion worth of trade with China,” Joly said. “We will challenge China when we ought to, and we will cooperate with China when we must. Its sheer size and influence makes cooperation necessary to address the world’s existential pressures.”

Cooper cited experts who have said Canada is “more exposed than any other G7 country” to CCP interference, adding that he doesn’t think it’s any coincidence.

“It is a result of the weakness and failure of this prime minister to take the threats posed by the Chinese communist regime seriously.”

Andrew Chen, Peter Wilson, Limin Zhou, NTD, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.