Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meetings at the G20 summit in Bali did not go as per the plan after a video of his conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went viral and his meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was cancelled, The Age reported.
The G20 summit was a chance for Xi to improve his ties with world leaders after years of tensions caused by China’s aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy and COVID-19 restrictions, according to report.
As China did not hold a formal sit-down with Canada’s leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pulled Xi Jinping aside on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. During the conversation, Trudeau expressed his views on the war in Ukraine and raised his concerns about China’s alleged interference in the Canadian elections, as per report.
The details regarding the informal conversation between Xi and Trudeau were leaked to Canadian media which the Chinese leader did not like. Xi expressed his displeasure regarding the information being leaked to the media.
While the camera was rolling behind Xi’s translator, the Chinese leader told Trudeau, “The conversation we had was leaked to the paper, it is inappropriate. That’s not the way the conversation was conducted. If there was sincerity, we can communicate well with mutual respect.”
“Otherwise anything could happen,”Report described it as a chilling warning from a president who was trying to mend his ties with world leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit, who have memories of the Chinese government’s use of “hostage diplomacy, trade strikes and economic coercion to get what it wants.”
China has been using these ways against Australia in the past four years, after Canberra’s response to Chinese foreign interference in elections in 2018, according to the news report.
After United Kingdom Prime Minister’s meeting with Xi was cancelled, Britain’s spy chief, MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said, “they are trying to rewrite the rule book, to buy the league, to recruit our coaching staff to work for them,” reported.
China was trying to keep control of the “stabilisation” narrative by releasing information regarding their formal meetings simultaneously or shortly after they had ended.