Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia.
The Canadian leader said in a press conference after their meeting that he discussed with the Chinese president the issue of China's "
interference
" in Canadian internal affairs.
“
I raised the issue of interference with our citizens, it is important to be able to have a dialogue
on this issue
,” said Justin Trudeau after the bilateral meeting.
Last week, Justin Trudeau had already claimed that China was engaged
in “aggressive games
” with Canadian democracies and institutions, after the publication of a report by the Canadian channel
Global News
s alluding to interference in the electoral process in Canada, in particular during the Canadian federal elections of 2019. The Canadian federal police had indicated last Thursday that they were also conducting an investigation into police stations which would have been set up illegally by China in Canada to control in particular the Chinese exiles or expatriates.
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Asked about the course of the meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said he had no information to divulge.
However, thanks to a video posted on Twitter by the
CTV
channel - the channel of Chinese influence in the world - the whole world could see a discussion between Xi Jinping and Justin Trudeau, during which the Chinese president expresses his displeasure at the regard to the Prime Minister of Canada.
According to the Chinese president, Justin Trudeau allegedly leaked the content of their private conversation to the press.
In the video we can see Xi Jinping, in the company of his interpreter, declare: "
Everything we discussed has leaked in the press, it is not appropriate
".
He further added that “it
This is not how the conversation took place
”, calling into question the veracity of the report of the meeting published in the press.
Justin Trudeau then replied that he hoped that China and Canada "
will continue to have constructive discussions, even if we don't agree on everything
" before Xi Jinping replied by saying that we "
had to first agree on the terms of discussion before
”.
These tensions between Canada and China on the private aspect of diplomatic conversations are not likely to improve relations between the two countries, which have already been complicated for a few years.
In 2018, Canada arrested the daughter of Huawei founder Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States, which demanded her extradition.
She was ultimately stranded in Canada for three years, before being able to return to China, after a mutual prisoner exchange between Ottawa and Beijing.
But the case has blurred relations between the two countries for a long time.
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At the same time, Canada is moving ever closer to the US position of systemic confrontation with China.
In May 2022, Canada for example banned from its territory two large Chinese companies, ZTE and Huawei, considered by many Western countries as companies that could be used for spying by China on American or European telecommunications.
It should nevertheless be noted that this is not the first time that diplomatic discussions made public have provoked tensions between heads of state.
Last May, after the publication of a documentary by
France 5
revealing the telephone conversations between Vladimir Poutine and Emmanuel Macron, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Kremlin had accused France of violating "the etiquette diplomatic".