Canada has banned the use of the Chinese social media application WeChat on government-owned electronic devices, including mobile phones issued to key government officials. The reasons cited were national security and personal information protection. Relations between Canada and China are deteriorating further, to the point where the leaders of the two countries engaged in a public war of words at the banquet hall of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia last November.
According to foreign media, including Reuters, on the 31st of last month, Canadian authorities said, “WeChat, owned by the Chinese company Tencent, poses an unacceptable level of risk in terms of personal information protection and security,” and “access from government-owned mobile phone devices is prohibited.” “I decided to block it,” he said. WeChat apps that were already installed were to be uninstalled immediately.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Wang Wonbin. NewsisChina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized Canada for suppressing Chinese companies without evidence. “The Canadian government is oppressing Chinese companies under the pretext of ‘security’ and ‘personal information protection’ without any evidence,” said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a briefing on this day. “This is abusing national power and targeting companies from certain countries.” “It is an act of unfair oppression,” he pointed out. He continued, “WeChat is a social platform operated by a private company,” and emphasized, “The Chinese government strictly requires Chinese companies to comply with local laws when doing business abroad.”
The conflict between the two countries began in earnest when Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, vice chairman of Huawei, China’s largest telecommunications equipment company, in December 2018 for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, and China detained Canadians in the country. In October last year, Canadian media reported, “There are suspicions that China interfered in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections by taking advantage of one million Chinese citizens living in Canada,” heightening public opinion against China in Canada. There were also suspicions that WeChat was used in suspicion of election interference.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a public war of words at the G20 summit last November. The previous day, the two leaders discussed China’s alleged interference in the election, and when President Xi expressed unusual regret over the fact that some of the content was disclosed to the Canadian media, Prime Minister Trudeau refuted it. In May of this year, we met with the other side’s diplomats.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.