China has retaliated against the expulsion of one of its diplomats in Toronto by demanding that a senior Canadian diplomat leave the country, escalating a dispute that has highlighted the recent deterioration in relations between Beijing and the west.In a statement on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said Jennifer Lynn Lalonde, consul of the Shanghai consulate, had until May 13 to leave the country. It also confirmed that the decision was a “reciprocal countermeasure” after Canada’s expulsion of diplomat Zhao Wei — the first of its kind in decades — was confirmed just hours earlier.
The Canadian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tit-for-tat moves were the latest indication of increasingly fraught relations between China and western countries. US lawmakers have ratcheted up criticism of the Chinese Communist party and imposed increasingly sweeping measures to curb China’s development of advanced semiconductor technology, while Canada has stepped up accusations of surveillance and electoral interference.