China has ordered a Canadian diplomat to leave the country, in a tit-for-tat move hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government expelled a Chinese envoy from his nation.
Jennifer Lalonde, a diplomat from Canada’s consulate in Shanghai, has until Saturday to leave the country, according to a Tuesday statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. China said the move was a “reciprocal countermeasure” to Canada’s “unreasonable behavior” and it reserved the right to make further responses.
The Canadian embassy in Beijing didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.
Canada expelled a Chinese envoy Zhao Wei after he was named in a Globe and Mail report last week that cited a leaked Canadian intelligence document. The newspaper reported the document, dated July 2021, revealed the diplomat was looking into penalizing Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong over his hard-line positions on the Beijing government, punishment that could entail sanctioning Chong’s relatives in Hong Kong.
Read more: Canada Expels Chinese Diplomat, Risking Retaliation in Feud
