Chinese envoy warns Canada against granting asylum to Hong Kong protesters

The Chinese ambassador to Canada is warning the Trudeau government not to grant asylum to Hong Kong residents fleeing a widely criticized national security law imposed by Beijing.

Ambassador Cong Peiwu branded pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong as violent criminals and says if Canada grants them asylum that amounts to interference in China’s internal affairs.

“We strongly urge the Canadian side not (to) grant so-called political asylum to those violent criminals in Hong Kong because it is the interference in China’s domestic affairs. And certainly, it will embolden those violent criminals,” Cong said Thursday in a video press conference from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa.

Hong Kong was supposed to operate under a “one country, two systems” agreement after Britain handed its former colony over to Beijing in 1997 under an international agreement.

But human-rights and pro-democracy advocates say Beijing’s new security law is undermining freedom in what China calls the Hong Kong Special Administrative

Region.

“So, if the Canadian side really cares about the stability and the prosperity in

Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport-holders in Hong Kong, and the large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong SAR, you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes,” Cong said.

Cherie Wong, the executive director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, said Cong’s comment is a “direct threat” to all Canadians.

Wong said China’s has “ignored, trampled on, and now torn to shreds” its handover agreement for Hong Kong by enacting the new national-security law.

“Their actions are the reason that many Hong Kongers are seeking asylum in Canada, because they no longer feel safe in Hong Kong or their human rights will be protected in Hong Kong under control of the new National Security Law,” she said in a statement.

“It should not be lost on Canadians living in Hong Kong or China, they could be next. Ambassador Cong suggested so himself.”