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OTTAWA — Canada’s strategy for navigating growing tensions with China was in disarray Saturday after Justin Trudeau fired his ambassador to Beijing.

The prime minister’s office announced Saturday that ambassador John McCallum had been told to hand in his resignation — just hours after he weighed in on a high-stakes extradition case for the second time in less than a week.

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McCallum was quoted in a Vancouver newspaper as saying it would be “great for Canada” if the United States dropped its extradition request for Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive who was detained in Vancouver last month.

He told StarMetro Vancouver on Friday that if the U.S. and China reach an agreement on Meng’s case, the deal should include the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians currently detained in China for what many analysts say is revenge for the detention of Meng.

“We have to make sure that if the U.S. does such a deal, it also includes the release of our two people. And the U.S. is highly aware of that,” McCallum told the Star.