China yesterday announced the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa ordering a Chinese consular official to leave the country over threats he allegedly made against a Canadian lawmaker and his family.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that China was deploying a “reciprocal countermeasure to Canada’s unscrupulous move,” which it said it “firmly opposes.”
It said Jennnifer Lynn Lalonde, the top Canadian diplomat in Shanghai, has been asked to leave by Saturday and that China “reserves the right to take further actions in response.”
Photo: EPA
The Canadian embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment on the expulsion order.
Ottawa earlier in the day said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is expelling a Chinese diplomat whom Canada’s spy agency alleged was involved in a plot to intimidate an opposition lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong.
A senior Canadian government official said that Toronto-based diplomat Zhao Wei (趙巍) has five days to leave the country. It was not immediately clear if Zhao was still in Canada.
Photo: AP
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly said in a statement that Canada declared Zhao persona non grata and that Canada would “not tolerate any form of foreign interference in our internal affairs.”
“Diplomats in Canada have been warned that if they engage in this type of behavior, they will be sent home,” Joly said.
Canada’s spy service indicated that in 2021, opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong (莊文浩) and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record.
Canada’s spy agency has not released details publicly.
Chong has been critical of Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur ethnic group in China’s Xinjiang region, hundreds of thousands of whom have been detained in prison-like political “re-education” camps.
China says attendance at what it calls vocational training centers is purely voluntary.
Chong said Zhao’s expulsion should have happened years ago.
“I hope that this makes it clear not just to the People’s Republic of China, but other authoritarian states who have representation here in Canada, that this crossing the line of diplomacy into foreign interference threat activities is utterly unacceptable here on Canadian soil,” Chong said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique