BALI, Indonesia (LifeSiteNews) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was angrily accused by Communist China’s President Xi Jinping of leaking details of a conversation between the pair about alleged Chinese interference in Canada’s elections.
In a video now widely circulating on social media, Jinping, at an event at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Wednesday, said to Trudeau via a translator, “everything we discuss has been leaked to the paper; that’s not appropriate.”
Jinping then said, “If you are being sincere, we must communicate with mutual respect,” adding, “if not, I’m not so sure how it will turn out.”
In response, Trudeau told the communist leader, “In Canada, we believe in free and open and frank dialogue, and that is what we will continue to have. We will continue to look to work constructively together, but there will be things we will disagree on.”
The Chinese president appeared dismissive of Trudeau’s comments, saying “let’s create the conditions first.”
After the exchange, the pair of leaders shook hands and Jinping turned away.
Later on Wednesday, Trudeau in a press conference said that “Canada trusts its citizens with information about the conversations that we have in their name as a government.”
In French, Trudeau noted, “There’s a reality, that our systems are very different.”
“I won’t shy away from being open with Canadians, even as we discuss important and sometimes delicate subjects,” he added in English.
The day before the awkward exchange, Jinping and Trudeau spoke to each other in an unofficial sideline meeting, in what was their first in-person meeting in three years.
According to a readout of the conversation provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Trudeau raised concerns with Chinese president regarding recent media reports about Chinese interference in Canada’s 2019 election.
Other media reported that in the conversation Trudeau raised “serious concerns” over what he said were “interference activities” going on in Canada.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, a recent Global News report stated that Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has identified at least 11 candidates in the 2019 federal election who were thought to be under the direct funding and influence of the CCP.
The report quickly spread, leading to Canada’s House of Commons affairs committee voting unanimously on Monday that any documents relating to alleged Chinese communist regime interference in the nation’s elections must be released.
Six Canadian MPs – from the Conservative Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Quebecois – have also demanded Trudeau’s Liberal government publicly meet to discuss the troubling allegations.
In July of this year, LifeSiteNews also reported that an analysis conducted by a federal research unit showed that the CCP may have tried to influence the outcome of the Canadian 2021 federal election as well.
Earlier in the week, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced they had laid charges against a person working in behalf for allegedly spying on the province’s energy sector on behalf of the Communist Chinese regime.
Trudeau’s impromptu meeting with the Chinese president comes at a time when tensions between China and Canada have been running at all-time highs since the 2019 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO for Chinese tech company Huawei.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, or the “two Canadian Michaels,” for months were detained by the Chinese government in what most regarded as a retaliatory measure for Canada’s arrest of Huawei’s Wanzhou. All three were released last year to their homelands.
As part of the Huawei scandal, Canada banned the company from the nation’s telecommunications systems over security concerns.
Despite the current tension, Chinese influence in Canadian politics has been frequently speculated, especially given Trudeau’s past admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship” and his government’s unwillingness to declare the CCP’s treatment of its Uyghur population a “genocide,” despite credible evidence.