Not ‘accusing’ Canada, says China, a day after Xi rebuked Trudeau

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping did not “accuse” Canadian PM Justin Trudeau during a short interaction in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 summit, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday, a day after the Chinese leader was seen and heard confronting Trudeau over apparent information leaks from a bilateral meet.

An expert has described the incident of Xi rebuking Trudeau in public, in what was their first talks in over three years, as “highly offensive” and showing disdain for a foreign leader.

Canadian broadcasters published video footage on Wednesday, which showed the two leaders talking to each other on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in Indonesia. A translator for Xi can be heard in the video telling Trudeau that “everything we discussed was leaked to the paper(s), that’s not appropriate”.

Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, former Canadian diplomat to China, Charles Burton, said he found Xi’s language to be “quite dismissive and threatening”, indicating China’s lack of respect for Canada.