Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning in Beijing today.
Beijing/Ottawa/New Delhi: After India, it is now China’s turn to accuse the Canadian government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of spreading falsehood without offering any evidence. Beijing today reacted strongly to Canada’s foreign ministry’s accusation that an organisation “connected to China” was spreading disinformation related to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Members of Parliament and other senior officials by leaving comments and “deepfake” videos online.
“The so-called statement by Canada’s foreign ministry misrepresents facts and is very misleading, which makes trumped-up charges against China. We deplore and firmly oppose that,” Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing today. She went on to state: “For some time, the Canadian side has falsely accused China of spreading disinformation against Canadian politicians on multiple occasions, but it has never come up with any solid evidence.”
Ning further accused the Canadian side of making up “lies” for long about Xinjiang, Xizang and Hong Kong “to attack and smear” China. China accused Canada of producing and spreading disinformation, and urged the Canadian side to “respect facts and truth”.
Beijing asked Ottawa to “stop spreading China-related lies, and stop words and deeds that would poison the atmosphere of China-Canada relations and damage bilateral relations”.
Earlier, India too had accused Trudeau of spreading a canard against India by alleging New Delhi’s hand in the murder of Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023. New Delhi strongly rebutted Trudeau’s allegations which it claimed to be “unsubstantiated” and an attempt by Canada to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. India dismissed Trudeau’s charges as “primarily political allegations” and claimed no specific information has been shared by Canada with the Indian government in this case.
Later, on October 20, 2023, India further slammed Canada for the latter’s attempt to portray the implementation of parity with regard to Canadian diplomatic presence in India as a violation of international norms.
“The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa…Our actions in implementing this parity are fully consistent with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations…We have seen the Statement by the Government of Canada on October 19 regarding Canadian diplomatic presence in India…We reject any attempt to portray the implementation of parity as a violation of international norms,” the Indian External Affairs Ministry stated on October 20, 2023.
– global bihari bureau
