John McCallum had said Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the US

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

In an unprecedented move, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who had prompted a political furore with comments about Huawei’s high-profile extradition case.

'I misspoke': Canada ambassador to China regrets saying Huawei chief had 'strong case' Read more

John McCallum had embarrassed Trudeau’s Liberal party government by saying Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, could make a strong argument against being sent to the US.

Opposition legislators and former ambassadors accused McCallum of unacceptable political interference in an affair which has badly damaged relations between Canada and China.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in Vancouver last month over alleged violations of US sanctions on Iran.

China subsequently detained two Canadian citizens on national security grounds. A Chinese court later retried a Canadian man who had been jailed for drugs smuggling and sentenced him to death.

“Last night I asked for and accepted John McCallum’s resignation as Canada’s ambassador to China,” Trudeau said in a statement, which did not explain his reasons.

Trudeau said as recently as Thursday that he had no plans to replace McCallum, who apologized the same day for his remarks earlier in the week.

But the Toronto Star newspaper on Friday quoted the envoy as saying that if Washington dropped the extradition request “that would be great for Canada”.

McCallum, 68, a longtime former Liberal cabinet minister, is not a trained diplomat. Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former Canadian diplomat who had served two postings in China, said his comments on Meng possibly avoiding extradition had signaled to Beijing that its hardline tactics were working.

“He really made it untenable for the prime minister to sustain him [in his post] for any length of time and he had to go,” Burton said by telephone, suggesting Trudeau should quickly appoint a special envoy to handle the dispute.

Spokespeople for Trudeau and the foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, declined to comment when asked about the dismissal.

