VANCOUVER — A Canadian think tank attacked by mainland China’s embassy in Canada says Ottawa’s silence on the issue will only embolden Beijing to make further attempts to stifle free speech in Canada.

Charles Burton is a senior fellow and China expert at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, at which the Chinese embassy aimed remarks on its website this week. He said the statement is outside of normal diplomatic behaviour and should not be tolerated by Ottawa.

“One would expect that the government of Canada would engage with the Chinese embassy about such a statement,” Burton said. “It’s clearly an attempt to interfere with freedom of expression by a Canadian think tank and make allegations against the think tank that are clearly without basis whatsoever.”

On Sunday the embassy of the People’s Republic of China issued the statement attacking the institute for publishing an open letter criticizing the Chinese Communist Party for its coverup of the coronavirus outbreak early on. The letter was an international effort signed by more than 100 scholars and politicians.

Burton and other MLI-affiliated scholars were among the signatories and the institute published the letter on its website April 14.

“The roots of the pandemic are in a coverup by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province,” read part of it. “Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organization first downplayed the pandemic.”

China’s embassy in Ottawa charged the letter is malicious and accused the institute of interfering in China’s internal affairs.

“The Chinese side expresses its firm opposition over such actions by the MLI,” it read.

It goes on to praise China’s government for its handling of the outbreak. The government of China has been slammed for initially arresting the doctors who discovered the virus and accusing them of spreading rumours rather than taking measures to stem the outbreak.

The letter then accuses the MLI of being in league with Taiwan and the Falun Gong, calling it “anti-China.”

The Star asked Global Affairs Canada for its response to the statement and received one via spokesperson Barbara Harvey.

“Canada believes that human rights, including freedom of expression, and the rule of law are essential to a safe, prosperous and democratic society,” read the statement. “Think tanks and civil society organizations play a vital role in the free exchange of ideas that is essential to a healthy democracy.”

The statement said Canada is committed to improving and protecting its public institutions.

But when shown the statement Burton said it doesn’t go far enough.

“It is disappointing that the statement makes no attempt to defend the integrity of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute as the target of this unjustified smear by the Embassy of China or to remind the Government of China of the limits of the appropriate and acceptable diplomatic role of its representatives in Canada,” he said.

The lack of a firm response will “embolden” China to continue such tactics, he said, which have escalated since Canada detained the CFO of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

Meng Wanzhou was arrested at the request of the United States as she passed through Vancouver on her way to Mexico in 2018. In the U.S. she is wanted on allegations related to fraud.

Days after her arrest, Beijing arrested two Canadians in China, businessman Michael Spavor and consultant Michael Kovrig, accusing them of espionage-related crimes in what many experts have said is retaliation for the Meng arrest.

China also put sanctions on some Canadian goods. Burton said Ottawa’s silence is part of the reason Beijing has targeted Canada.

But China has tried such actions to silence critics in other countries or made remarks about their internal affairs and has been smacked down by their governments. Recently, former Chinese ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye was summoned by the French government, where he is now ambassador, for his comments on the country’s handling of COVID-19.

Lu alleged elderly people were being left to die of starvation in French retirement homes. When in Canada, Lu accused the country of having a white supremacist ideology and received no known response from Ottawa.

In Sweden, China’s ambassador Gui Congyou was summoned by Stockholm after repeated attacks on the Swedish media in January.

“It is like when a lightweight boxer is trying to provoke a fight with a heavyweight boxer, and said heavyweight boxer is kindly encouraging the lightweight to mind his own business, out of goodwill,” Gui said on a Swedish talk show according to the Guardian newspaper.

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Burton said he’d like a strong response from the Canadian government, but doubts Ottawa will because of pressure from Canadian multinational corporations doing business in circles close to the Chinese Communist Party.

But, he added, Beijing has also managed to influence the Canadian government via a network of those sympathetic to Beijing.

“Canada is evidently more penetrated by agents of the Chinese regime than other countries,” he said. “As a result, the Chinese regime has been able to dampen the kind of response that one would expect from a liberal democracy against a regime which is engaging in activities hostile to the interest of Canada and our values.”

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