Zhao Wei, a Chinese diplomat working in Toronto, was expelled from Canada on Monday after an intelligence assessment said he attempted to assassinate a politician critical of China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.”We will not tolerate any form of foreign interference,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Monday.
The expulsion worsens already hostile Sino-Canadian relations and will probably lead to a response from China, which is Canada’s second-largest trading partner. The expulsion was condemned by the Chinese embassy in Ottawa, which also informed the government that it had formally objected to the action.
China will steadfastly take action in response, according to a statement on the embassy’s website from a representative.
Professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa Roland Paris, a former foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that China would most likely retaliate by expelling a Canadian envoy.
spy service A study about Chinese influence in Canada was written in 2021 by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and it contained information about possible threats to Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Chong and his family.
After the announcement, Chong told reporters ” It shouldn’t have taken two years for the government to make this decision”.
China has said that it has never meddled in Canadian internal issues and that it has no desire to do so. The report on Chong, according to China’s consulate general in Toronto, “has no factual basis” and China has asserted that it has never meddled in Canadian internal matters and has no desire to do so. The general consulate of China in Toronto stated that the report regarding Chong “has no factual basis and is purely baseless.”