Senator Ngo calls for the immediate expulsion of Chinese envoy to Canada
[For immediate release]- October 27, 2020
Today, Senator Thanh Hai Ngo issued the following Statement in response to inflammatory remarks made by the Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Mr. Cong Peiwu, during a conference call with reporters on October 15, 2020:
During a video conference with the press on October 15th, Mr. Peiwu demonstrated a level of insolence, undisguised contempt and profound disrespect unbecoming of his office when he shamelessly threatened that the health and safety of our 300,000 Canadians residing in Hong Kong as well as Canadian companies operating in that region could be jeopardized if Canada grants political asylum to pro-democracy activists. In so doing, the Ambassador’s incredibly offensive remarks are a collective threat to all Canadians.
This aggressive attitude is a well-established practice in our political saga of intimidation with the authoritarian state. For almost two years now, China has taken a no-holds-barred approach in launching injurious and unfounded objections in the form of constant bullying and thinly-veiled threats at Canadian parliamentarians, provincial premiers – even the Prime Minister – when they legitimately criticize China; particularly the flagrant cover-up and mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, its gruesome human rights record, its harassment and intimidation of Canadians on our soil and abroad, or condemn the regime’s coercive diplomacy of extortion and hostage-taking.
In addition to this, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s ongoing human rights violations, which can only be qualified as criminal include, but are not limited to: the kidnapping and laying of trumped-up charges against Messrs. Spavor and Kovrig (but also Huseyin Celil and several other Canadians that have also been languishing in Chinese prisons under deplorable conditions, long since forgotten), the physical, cultural and biological genocide of over 2 million Uyghurs through mass internment and forced sterilization, the ongoing persecution of Tibetans, as well as the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.
Retaliating with empty words has compromised Canada’s credibility on the world stage and has only served to further embolden the CCP’s belligerent behaviour, as evidenced by their many threats. Standing up to the CCP is the only way to regain the respect of our nation, global allies and dissuade future intimidation and extortion. Canada must adopt stiff countermeasures against Chinese aggression whenever and wherever necessary to protect our interests, our citizens, our national security, as well as the rules-based international order.
The Chinese Ambassador’s hostile and incendiary declarations to the media are reminiscent of the type of ‘persuasive’ parlance typically employed in an organized crime milieu.
Some tangible steps we should take immediately, include: imposing Magnitsky sanctions; cutting off any future foreign aid, such as the incomprehensible 41 million dollars sent to China, the world’s second largest economy, last year; closing all CCP-run spy hubs, better known as ‘Confucius Institutes’; barring Huawei from accessing our 5G telecommunications infrastructure (following the example of our four other partner states in the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance); banning all Chinese takeovers of Canadian companies; and divesting the 256 million dollars invested into the Chinese-controlled Asian Infrastructure Bank.
As a free and democratic nation, Canada will always stand for human rights and uphold the rules-based international order. We will continue to proudly and unapologetically affirm the principles on which our great nation was founded. I call on the government of Canada to finally take decisive action – the only language an iron-fisted Communist politburo will understand – and start by swiftly revoking Mr. Cong Peiwu’s diplomatic credentials and immediately declaring him ‘persona non grata’.
For more information, please contact:
Office of the Honourable Thanh Hai Ngo
613-943-1599
@SenatorNgo
Additional information:
John Ivison: No amount of smooth diplomatic phrases can mask China’s bullying
Fifty years later, Canada-China relations are chillier than October in Ottawa
China accuses Canada of condoning alleged anti-China remarks