Beijing Has More Diplomats in Montreal Alone Than All of France: Federal Figures

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa in a file photo. The Epoch Times

Beijing has more diplomats in the city of Montreal than in all of France, while Canada hosts just 23 fewer Chinese diplomats than the United States, according to recent figures from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

In a report titled “Diplomatic, Consular & Other Representatives In Canada,” GAC listed all active foreign diplomats in the country as of March 31, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The report said that as of the end of March, GAC had accredited 138 Chinese diplomats across Canada—one of whom was Zhao Wei, the Chinese consul in Toronto expelled by the federal government earlier this month after reports that he had targeted members of Conservative MP Michael Chong’s family in Hong Kong.

Of the 138 total Chinese diplomats in Canada, 18 were stationed at Beijing’s consulate in Montreal, according to the GAC figures.

No other countries—including French-speaking ones—had more diplomats stationed in Montreal. Haiti had 13 stationed in the city, Belgium had eight, France had five, and Switzerland had four.

Beijing also had 30 diplomats—now 29 excluding Zhao—stationed at its Toronto consulate, 21 stationed in Vancouver, and 12 in Calgary.

China’s total 138 diplomats in Canada numbered more than every other country in the world except the United States, which had 161 diplomats in Canada as of March.

Japan had the next highest number of diplomats in the country with 60, while Mexico had 48, Germany had 38, India had 35, and France had 33.

Interference

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) has previously heard expert witnesses raise concerns about the high number of diplomats Beijing has stationed in Canada.

Charles Burton, a former counsellor at Canada’s embassy in China and now a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, told PROC in early February that the large number of Chinese diplomats in Canada seemed suspicious.

“It does make me wonder if a significant proportion of China’s exceptionally large diplomatic cohort here are engaged primarily in United Front Work, monitoring agents involved in influence peddling, disinformation and coercion,” Burton said on Feb. 7, noting that GAC figures at the time counted 146 accredited Chinese diplomats in Canada.

Appearing before the same committee, Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney said that Ottawa “must be prepared to expel Chinese diplomats involved in interference or harassment.”

“Our failure to do so only encourages increasingly brazen meddling,” he said. “This will trigger retaliation, but we must make it clear that expulsion is the inevitable consequence of such hostile behaviour.”

After Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declaring Zhao persona non grata on May 8, Liberal MP and Commons national defence committee chair John McKay said he anticipates more expulsions will follow.

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

“These people bear no relationship to diplomats,” he said earlier. “They’re not really interested in persuading you. They’re interested in intimidating you.”

Isaac Teo contributed to this report.