President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, has accused Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau of leaking valuable details about their meeting to the media, few days after they held a series of talks at the G20 summit.
He expressed to the PM that it was inappropriate of him to do that, and he accused him of lacking sincerity. His claims were filmed and communicated via a translator. These talks between the pair took place in a private place, and this has been their first talk in a long time. The footage was filmed by some journalists at the just-ended gathering of the G20 meeting. In the footage, President Xi was seen talking to the Canadian PM, with his translator standing next to him.
“Everything we discussed has been leaked to the newspapers and that is not appropriate,” Xi told Trudeau in Mandarin.
In response to this, the Canadian PM said that, in Canada, he and his people believed in free and fair dialogue, and that is what he and the Chinese President will continue to have. He added that, “we will continue to look to work constructively together but I believe there will be things we disagree on.”
President Xi abruptly ended the conversation before PM Trudeau could even finish his statement. He eventually shook hands with the Canadian PM and walked away. With regards to the details of the meeting that PM Trudeau has been accused of leaking, it was likely that President Xi was referring to reports that, Mr. Trudeau had discussed alleged Chinese espionage and interference in Canadian elections at the sitting.
Tensions and arrests in China And Canada
After the short but revealing exchange between the two leaders, tensions which had been running high since 2018 between China and Canada were being brought into the light.
In 2018, it was reported that the Technologies Executive of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou was detained in Canada. Also, there was a subsequent arrest in Beijing of two Canadians who were detained on the charges of being spies. However, all three people were later released.
Tensions between the two countries began to resurge recently, following the arrest of Yuesheng Wang, a utility worker at, Hydro-Quebec, who was charged with espionage by the Canadian police on the 14th of November, 2022.
According to the Canadian police, Mr. Wang “obtained trade secrets to benefit the People’s Republic of China, to the detriment of Canada’s economic interests.” He was set to appear before court to face four criminal charges. At the time of the arrest, Mr. Trudeau and President Xi were at the G20 summit in Indonesia, Bali.
Mr. Wang, a resident of Candiac, a suburb in Montreal was accused of obtaining trade secrets, unauthorized use of a computer, breach of trust by a public officer and fraud. Allegedly, the crime had been orchestrated for some years now, and it occurred between February 2018 and October 2022.
An investigation was launched to look into Mr. Wang after the company’s security branch filed a complaint in the month of August this year.
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