China denies spying report

 

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa denied Friday morning that one of its diplomats was kicked out of Canada for spying on Falun Gong practitioners.

 

BY CANWEST NEWS SERVICE NOVEMBER 17, 2006

 

 

OTTAWA - The Chinese embassy in Ottawa denied Friday morning that one of its diplomats was kicked out of Canada for spying on Falun Gong practitioners.

“The diplomat has completed his term of office. He was called back,” said a senior Chinese government official, who is not authorized to be quoted by name.

“It’s just a normal change of personnel.”

The official said the diplomat had served his normal three-year posting. The official said the diplomat in question was not engaged in spying on the Falun Gong movement.

The Chinese-language edition of the Epoch Times newspaper reported earlier this week that Foreign Affairs refused to extend the diplomatic visa of Wang Pengfei, a second secretary with the Chinese embassy in Ottawa.

The Times story was based on anonymous sources.

The newspaper, which also has an English edition, is distributed free in Canada and routinely takes a hard-line stance against Beijing. The newspaper is generally supportive of the Falun Gong movement, a meditative practice that Beijing has banned and dismisses as a religious cult.

Sandra Buckler, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman, did not have specific details on the case when asked about it in Hanoi, Vietnam the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Summit.

“We do have a case where they didn’t renew the diplomatic visa,” Buckler said. “I believe he has left the country.”

The daily presence of Falun Gong protesters outside the Chinese Embassy has long been a major irritant for Beijing.

This latest report emerges as a minor drama unfolds as to whether Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao would formally meet at the APEC summit. Initially, Harper’s office told reporters the Chinese had canceled the meeting with Hu. But a foreign ministry spokeswoman in Beijing has since said the meeting will take place.

Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay have criticized Beijing of conducting industrial espionage in Canada, one of the major examples of the souring of Sino-Canadian relations in the nine months since the Harper government has taken power.

However, human rights groups have also accused Chinese diplomats of spying on Chinese dissidents in Canada and using the information to exert pressure on their relatives back in their home country.

Beijing flatly denies such charges.

This latest imbroglio comes just days after it was disclosed that a suspected Russian spy was detained at Montreal’s Trudeau airport.

The alleged Russian spy was accused of “being a danger to the security of Canada” and “engaging in an act of espionage” according to a security certificate signed by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Immigration Minister Monte Solberg.

Ottawa Citizen