Wed, Mar 31, 2021 page7

• Chinese diplomat belittles Justin Trudeau

  TENSIONS ESCALATE: China’s consul general to Rio de Janeiro called Trudeau a ‘boy’ who had ruined diplomatic relations and turned Canada into a ‘running dog of the US’

  • The Guardian, TORONTO
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  A Chinese diplomat has dismissed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “boy” in a social media attack marking a new low in the fractured relationship between the two countries.

  China and Canada have clashed repeatedly in the past few months, and last week the two countries imposed sanctions on each other in a growing row over Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur minority.

  Yet on Sunday, Trudeau was singled out for insult by Chinese Consul General to Rio de Janeiro Li Yang (李楊) in a tweet blaming him for the diplomatic crisis.

  “Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the US,” he wrote on Twitter.

  The demeaning term “running dog,” a relic of Maoist China, is often used to describe nations that are subservient to countries such as the US.

  Li’s twitter feed is often combative, taking aim at gun violence, the legacy of slavery in the US and treatment of asylum seekers, but Trudeau was the only leader the diplomat chose to single out for ridicule.

  As Chinese diplomacy is typically tightly controlled, Li’s message marks a rare and “disturbing” break from public statements by government officials, said David Mulroney, former Canadian ambassador to China.

  Li’s tweet “is a tremendous failure in Chinese digital diplomacy and soft power,” Mulroney said. “It’s as if someone has decided that it’s it’s okay to let people off the leash — or they’re unable to keep them on the leash. The first troubling, the second is worrying.”

  The outburst came as Canada, the EU, the UK and the US escalated their criticism of the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang region. Last week, the group of nations imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses.

  In response, China slapped retaliatory sanctions on Canadian lawmaker Michael Chong (莊文浩), a staunch critic of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

  Chong wrote on Twitter that he intended to “wear [the sanctions] as a badge of honour.”

  The Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the sanctions, calling them an “attack” on free expression.

  Underpinning the escalating tensions is a more than two-year effort for the release of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, who Canadian officials say are the victims of Chinese “ hostage diplomacy.”

  Meanwhile, China has demanded the release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟), who was arrested in Vancouver on a US arrest warrant in 2018.

  In addition to attacking Trudeau, Li used Twitter to attack the independence of Canada’s judiciary and called Ottawa’s decision to honor an extradition request and arrest the telecoms executive a “dirty thing,” adding that Canada — not China — was a “hostage taker.”
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