Toronto (Canada) (EFE).- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured this Tuesday that Canada will not be intimidated by China after Beijing announced the expulsion of the Canadian consul in Shanghai.
The expulsion of the Canadian consul comes 24 hours after Ottawa declared Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei “persona non grata”, who has been identified by Canadian media as the individual who was implicated in an operation to intimidate a Canadian lawmaker.
Trudeau declared in Ottawa on Tuesday that he knew China would retaliate after Zhao’s expulsion but that Canada will protect its interests.
“They are not going to intimidate us. We will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect Canadians from foreign interference,” she stated.
The Canadian prime minister also assured that Canada will act against any other diplomat who meddles in national politics despite the possible economic retaliation that China may adopt.
“These are things that we have considered, but we decided to move forward responsibly to send the message that we will not accept foreign interference. No matter what their next steps are, they are not going to intimidate us and what is more, we will make sure that China sees, along with other countries that commit interference, that we take it very seriously,” he said.
The new diplomatic crisis between Canada and China began at the end of last year when Canadian media began to leak documents from the Canadian intelligence services (CSIS) that accused Beijing of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 general elections.
According to CSIS reports, Beijing helped up to 11 general election candidates deemed more pro-Chinese regime, in some cases with financial support.
Other CSIS documents leaked last week indicated that China also tried to locate relatives of Canadian lawmaker Michael Chong to impose “potential sanctions” on them as a form of intimidation for their criticism of the Chinese regime, an operation in which Zhao was implicated.