Canada urged to expel Chinese diplomat

(TibetanReview.net, Jul17, 2010) Seventeen organizations and individuals in Canada have written to their Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon, requesting that Liu Shaohua, first secretary of the education section at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, be declared persona non grata for his role in mobilizing mainland Chinese students and scholars to suppress Canadian protesters, reported Canada Free Press Jul 15. It said Liu was caught on tape asking Chinese students and scholars to “counter attack” to fight a ‘political struggle’ during President Hu Jintao’s recent visit to Canada.

Liu was cited as telling the Chinese students whom he had called for a meeting, “Falun Gong, Tibetan separatists, Uyghur separatists, and democracy people” were planning protests that would “sabotage” and “interfere with” Hu’s visit. He was quoted as saying: “This is a battle that relates to defending the reputation of our motherland!” and whoever cannot come “must ask for leave from me.”

While being stern in demanding attendance, Liu was also generous and secretive about the students’ Jun 23 to Jun 25 mission, saying the embassy would cover all expenses, but “do not talk about it outside.”

The Epoch times Jul 15 said Liu laid out a plan for three days of “counter attacks” against the protesters, including bringing enough people to Parliament Hill to “surpass” the number of protesters, arranging day and night shifts outside the Westin Hotel, where Hu was to stay, starting from Jun 22 (one day before Hu’s arrival), and carrying out “counteracts” against protesters on the way to the airport and to the governor general’s residence.

And so, on Jun 22, about 200 Chinese students arrived outside the Westin Hotel. They moved to occupy the protesters’ area, covered the Falun Gong banners with red flags, pushed away Falun Gong practitioners and attempted to monopolize the entire area, the Canada Free Press report said.

Liu has been severely criticized for his action. “When a diplomat encourages hate against a group of people in Canada, he is acting against the diplomatic rules,” Mr Michael Craig, Chair of the China Rights Networks, was quoted as saying.

Liu is also accused of selling to the people a version of reality which is extremely wrong and extremely dangerous. “The Chinese Embassy tried to influence public opinion by rallying these foreign students to make Canadians think that the Canadian Chinese community as a whole supports the Chinese communist party, but they do not. Many immigrants from China came here to seek freedom away from the totalitarian regime,” Grace Wollensak from the Falun Dafa Association of Canada was quoted as saying.

“There is more than enough evidence to justify expulsion of this official,” David Matas, a human Rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asian-pacific), were reported to have written in their own letter, “Repressing democratic protest in Canada is an abuse of the embassy and consular functions as set out in the Vienna Convention”

“The embassies and consulates of non-democratic states should not take advantage of democratic freedoms to attempt to expand their repression abroad. China should not be abusing Canadian freedoms to undermine Canadian democracy.”