A statement from the Chinese consulate in response to Kenney's tweet called on 'local politicians' to 'immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs'

EDMONTON — The Chinese consulate general in Calgary has publicly criticized Alberta Premier Jason Kenney for “interfering in China’s internal affairs” after the premier tweeted his support for a friend, a Chinese democracy activist, arrested on the weekend in Beijing’s escalating crackdown on democracy-protest organizers in Hong Kong.

On Saturday, after learning of the apprehension of Martin Lee, the 81-year-old founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic party, along with several other activists, Kenney tweeted that he was “shocked to learn” of the arrest. “Martin is the elder statesman of Hong Kong democracy. I hope for his immediate release.”

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Kenney referred to Lee in that tweet, and in another tweet from 2015, as his “longtime friend” and posted a photo of the two of them smiling together.

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Kenney’s tweet prompted a forceful rebuke from Chinese officials who on Tuesday published a statement online specifically referring to the premier’s comments. It read: “No one stays out of the law. Ignoring the facts and openly advocating for the rioters can only undermine the rule of law, which is not in Canada’s own interests.” The term “rioters” has been Beijing’s official description of the Hong Kong protesters, although they have, according to most reports, behaved for the most part peacefully.

The statement also issued a demand for “local politicians to abide by the basic norms governing international relations… and immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.”

Asked by the Post on Wednesday, Kenney said he’s known Lee for about 25 years and that he’s proud to call him a friend.

“Look, Alberta doesn’t have a foreign policy, and I don’t freelance in foreign policy,” Kenney said. “But I’ll just say this: when a personal friend of mine is arrested as a political prisoner, I can’t in good conscience stay silent.”

He said, in spite of the consulate’s response, “I make no apologies for speaking out in the interests of a great champion of human rights and democracy who was a political prisoner.”

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China had just two days earlier issued a rebuke against comments on the mass arrests in Hong Kong from the Canadian federal government. François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said in a statement on Sunday that “Canada is concerned by the arrests of political figures in Hong Kong on April 18 in relation to popular demonstrations that took place last year and believes that this extraordinary measure calls for close scrutiny.” He added: “Canada supports the right of peaceful protest” as well as the “autonomy and freedoms” that were once guaranteed to Hong Kong in the handover agreement between China and Britain, but which rights group say Beijing has failed to honour.

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The Chinese embassy in Ottawa said in a statement on Monday that Champagne’s “irresponsible remarks over the Hong Kong police’s arrest of anti-China rabble-rousers” was a “gross interference in China’s internal affairs.”

Lee was arrested along with 14 others, according to international media reports, on charges of illegal assembly stemming from the protests in Hong Kong that began last June. The protests began in opposition a bill that would’ve allowed extradition of individuals targeted by Beijing from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, where Beijing’s communist government exercises greater political control over the justice system. The movement soon grew into demands for greater democratic freedoms for Hong Kong, which has seen voting and other rights steadily eroded since its handover from Britain to China in 1997.

Recent reports suggest Lee has since been released on bail. In an article published on Monday in TheWashington Post about his arrest, Lee wrote that seven officers had detained him after he’d “just finished my morning walk around Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak.”

“Had the extradition bill been passed, we could have faced trial already in China instead of Hong Kong,” Lee wrote.