Canada Expels Chinese Diplomat, Risking Retaliation in Feud

  • Foreign minister announces move days after report of meddling
  • Embassy warns ‘Canada will bear all the consequences’
Xi Jinping and Justin Trudeau attend the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June 2019.Photographer: Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool via Bloomberg
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has expelled a Chinese envoy from Canada, a move that could prompt economic or diplomatic backlash from President Xi Jinping.

The envoy, Zhao Wei, was named in a Globe and Mail report last week that cited a leaked Canadian intelligence document. The newspaper reported the document, dated July 2021, revealed the diplomat was looking into penalizing Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong over his hard-line positions on the Beijing government, punishment that could entail sanctioning Chong’s relatives in Hong Kong.