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OTTAWA – Inviting the Chinese ambassador to a Liberal Party reception in Toronto “crosses the line,” the NDP says.

An invitation for a reception with Liberal leader Justin Trudeau at the Boulevard Club in Toronto on Thursday features Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui as the “guest of honour.”

The invitation explicitly says it is hosted by the Liberal Party of Canada.

“To invite China’s diplomat to a meeting, to an event, that could be a reasonable thing. But what’s not reasonable is that it’s a partisan event attempting to raise awareness for the Liberal party,” said Charlie Angus, the NDP’s ethics critic.

“That crosses the line.”

Angus questioned Trudeau’s maturity and judgment in featuring the ambassador on a Liberal party invitation.

“Mr. Trudeau has not been very successful in establishing that he’s got credibility on the international stage,” he said.

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Angus pointed to Trudeau’s 2013 remarks in which he praised China’s “basic dictatorship” as an example of his missteps on foreign affairs.

“The idea that Mr. Trudeau thought it would be a great bang for the party’s buck to call up the Chinese ambassador, invite him out to an event and not tell him that it was a partisan event to build support for the Liberal base, it embarrasses the country,” said Angus.

“It puts the diplomat in a very bad position, because it may be seen afterwards that he was somehow colluding with one party against another and interfering with domestic politics.”

In the end, China’s ambassador didn’t show up to the Liberal event Thursday. The Liberals say he declined to attend due to a scheduling conflict.

“The Ambassador was extended an invitation to celebrate Chinese New Year at an event in Toronto with Mr. Trudeau. He was unable to attend,” Liberal spokesman Cameron Ahmad said in an email.

Ahmad said the ambassador’s name was included on the invitation by local organizers.

Calls to China’s embassy were not immediately returned.