Xi Jinping has angrily rebuked Justin Trudeau after Canadian officials shared details of an earlier meeting, highlighting the frosty relationship between the two leaders.
In a clip recorded by the media group at the G20 summit in Indonesia, a visibly frustrated Xi pushes the Canadian prime minister aside and says it was “inappropriate” that details about an earlier conversation between the two leaders had been shared with the media suggesting that Trudeau lacked “sincerity” in his approach.
“Everything we discuss has been leaked to the newspaper, that’s not appropriate,” Xi told Trudeau through a translator. “And that’s not the way the conversation was conducted,” he added.
The difficult exchange came a day after government sources reported that during an earlier conversation on the sidelines of the summit, Trudeau had raised “serious concerns” with Xi about China’s increasingly aggressive “interference activities” .
Xi’s outburst on Wednesday was a rare break from his usually carefully scripted public appearances.
“In Canada, we believe in free, open and frank dialogue and that’s what we’re going to continue to have,” Trudeau said, interrupting Xi’s translator. “We will continue to seek to work constructively together, but there will be things on which we will disagree.”
Waving his hands, Xi told Trudeau the two needed to “create the conditions first.” The pair ended their conversation by shaking hands and walking off in opposite directions, with the Canadian prime minister looking chastened by the encounter.
The awkward exchange, and the earlier conversation, followed repeated warnings from Trudeau and other officials that China had sought to undermine Canada’s democracy. Canadian intelligence officials told parliamentarians in January they believed China interfered in the 2019 federal election, and media reports earlier this month alleged Beijing had funded a clandestine network of candidates On Monday, Canadian police charged a Quebec power company investigator with espionage for allegedly sending trade secrets to China.
After the first conversation, Trudeau’s team said he and Xi also discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and the importance of the Cop15 biodiversity conference in December, where China and Canada will co-host nations in an effort to “protect nature and fight back.” climate change,” said the source.
With relations still strained between the two countries, Trudeau was left out of any formal meeting with Xi, a diplomatic snub for the prime minister. The Chinese leader made time in Bali to meet with US President Joe Biden in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than three and a half hours. Xi also met with French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Speaking to reporters after the tense interaction, Trudeau said not all talks with Chinese leaders “will be easy,” but added that Canada needed to be able to “engage constructively and directly and at the same time be there to challenge human rights and human rights.” values that matter to Canadians”.