The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday insisted the unusual and awkward encounter between dictator Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Wednesday was not – despite all appearances to the contrary – a case of Xi losing his temper and lecturing Trudeau.
“The video you mentioned was indeed a short conversation both leaders held during the G20 summit. This is very normal. I don’t think it should be interpreted as Chairman Xi criticizing or accusing anyone,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a reporter.
The video in question was shot by a Canadian cameraman when a clearly unhappy Xi cornered Trudeau on Wednesday and appeared to do exactly what Mao said he did not do, topping his lecture off with a Chinese phrase that is commonly used as a threat:
Close observers of Chinese politics noted it was remarkable for Xi to appear so visibly upset in public or to personally employ such aggressive language with a foreign leader. Xi normally leaves the lectures and threats to his subordinates. As a Communist tyrant, he enjoys a large contingent of flunkies who can handle such theatrics for him.
Mao declined to answer follow-up questions about what Xi meant when he told Trudeau his actions were “not appropriate,” which would, indeed, seem to be criticism leveled at the Canadian prime minister and his officials for leaking details of a brief private conversation between Xi and Trudeau the previous day.
Mao refused to clarify if Xi was most upset at Trudeau for claiming he confronted Xi about China’s alleged meddling in Canadian elections, although she did risibly insist that “China never interferes in the affairs of other countries.”
Further analysis of the Xi-Trudeau confrontation on Wednesday caught Xi insulting Trudeau as “very naive” after the two leaders parted:
On Thursday, Canada’s CBC News, unmoved by the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spin doctoring, quoted Canadian observers who found Xi’s behavior insulting and said the encounter was clearly meant to convey his “disdain” for Trudeau personally and Canada in general.
“He certainly wouldn’t speak like that to the U.S. president. So it does suggest that Mr. Xi has a degree of disdain for the prime minister and does not see Canada as an important partner,” Charles Burton, a Macdonald-Laurier Institute senior fellow and former employee of the Canadian embassy to China, said.
Burton, who was one of the first commentators to notice Xi used the threatening Mandarin phrase “it will be hard to say what the result will be like” in a line that was not translated into English for Trudeau’s benefit, told CBC he found Xi’s remarks “very unpleasant” and “highly offensive.”
All of CBC’s experts noted Xi was very well aware the cameras were rolling, and he knew his reputation for aloofness would make the heated confrontation with Trudeau stand out.
“It’s very rare that Xi Jinping would engage in this type of behavior. He is very agitated, his face is red, his arms are moving … and he knows that cameras are rolling,” former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques said.
Saint-Jacques thought Xi staged the encounter to “make Trudeau lose face publicly at home, and around the world,” and seconded Burton by advising Canada to take the “veiled threat” Xi delivered in Mandarin seriously.
“We’ve seen before that the Chinese are willing to make an example of individual leaders and countries when they feel disrespected,” cautioned Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, who disagreed with the others only in saying that Xi’s threat was not “veiled” at all.
Bremmer said:
He showed utter indifference to that sentence that Trudeau gave to try to justify his perspective in the relationship. That is not the way you want a relationship between the Canadians and the Chinese to go. So obviously, there’s going to be some serious thinking about how to handle this going forward by the Canadians and frankly, with the Americans, too.
Canada’s relations with China have been difficult ever since the Canadians arrested Communist Party princess and Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in December 2018 for extradition to the United States on fraud and sanctions-busting charges. Xi’s regime was outraged by Meng’s arrest, demanding her immediate release and taking several Canadians hostage when Ottawa did not comply. Meng and the Canadian hostages were all released in September 2021.
The Trudeau family has a long relationship with the Chinese Communist government, dating back to Justin Trudeau’s father and predecessor Pierre paying friendly visits to regime founder Mao Zedong in the 1960s, delicately stepping over the mountains of corpses piled around the mass-murdering dictator.
The Trudeau dynasty also has financial entanglements with China going back for decades, as detailed in Peter Schweizer’s best-selling book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win.
Both Pierre and Justin stewarded major Canadian deals with Chinese interests, and Chinese businessmen with strong political ties have donated substantial sums to Trudeau foundations. The Canadian national security establishment was surprised to discover in 2021 that Justin Trudeau’s memoir was published by a state-owned company in China. Trudeau claimed profits from the book were donated to the Red Cross, a claim that Canadian media could not confirm.
Trudeau’s brother, Alexandre, also publishes books in China and is an outspoken admirer of the country, its people, and its authoritarian Communist rulers. It is not difficult to see why Xi Jinping would feel entitled to chastise Justin Trudeau like a disobedient nephew.
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