More Chinese Diplomats May Be Expelled From Canada, Liberal MP Says

Liberal MP John McKay speaks to a reporter at the "Taiwan Night in Ottawa" event in Ottawa on May 10, 2023. Annie Wu/NTD

A Liberal MP says he is expecting more Chinese diplomats to be expelled from Canada after the recent expulsion of Zhao Wei, who was reportedly involved in targeting Conservative MP Michael Chong and threatening his family members in Hong Kong.

“These people bear no relationship to diplomats,” said John McKay, also chair of the Standing Committee of National Defence. “They’re not really interested in persuading you, they’re interested in intimidating you.”

“I expect that more diplomats will be expelled one way or another,” he told NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media, while at the “Taiwan Night in Ottawa” event on May 10.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared Zhao “persona non grata” two days earlier, after the Globe and Mail reported on May 1 that the Chinese diplomat worked with a Beijing-linked spy service to target Chong and his family in 2021.

The Globe’s report, later confirmed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, detailed how Chong was targeted because of a House of Commons motion he sponsored in February that year calling China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities a genocide.

On May 9, the Chinese regime retaliated by expelling Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, Canada’s diplomat at its Shanghai Consulate, and ordered her to leave China by May 13.

‘Wolf Warriors’

McKay, who represents the riding of Scarborough-Guildwood in Ontario, described China’s diplomacy with Canada as one that is conducted by “wolf warriors” for the sole interest of their communist leader.

“The reality is that we are all—parliamentarians and non-parliamentarians—going to have to realize that the government of China is not here for the best interests of Canadians. They are there for the best interests of one person, and one person only—Xi Jinping,” he said.

The Liberal MP added that the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020, which also grants the communist regime broad powers to persecute dissidents, whether abroad or in mainland China, is an “operating manual for thugs.”

“In Canada, we’ve seen it at a minor level. We have the so-called police stations. It’s just nothing other than a mafia shakedown thug operation,” he said.

The revelations about China’s secret police stations were first reported publicly by the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which said there are several of them operating in Canada.

‘The Belt Is for Your Neck’

McKay says Canada needs to change its way of dealing with China.

“That’s necessarily going to require a change in our attitude, but also our government institutions from the prime minister on down,” he said.

In response to Beijing’s expulsion of Lalonde, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada “will not be intimidated.”

“We will take whatever action is necessary to continue to protect our democracy and show that we’re standing up for our values and our principles,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on May 9.

McKay says the relationship with Beijing will only “stiffen” the more the regime “tries to intimidate us.” He warned that there are “no deals” to be made with the Chinese Communist Party, as it is only interested in turning the rest of the world into “vassal states.”

“Academically, I don’t know how we continue to cooperate with Chinese PRC [People’s Republic of China] scientists, researchers, people of that nature. Economically, you can never be in a position to be dependent upon a Chinese supplier or Chinese buyer,” the Liberal MP said.

“As I’ve said in other times, [regarding] the Belt and Road Initiative: All roads lead to Beijing, the belt is for your neck.”

Noé Chartier and Peter Wilson contributed to this report.