A spokesperson for the Chinese government compared the “freedom convoy” recently dislodged from the streets of the Canadian capital to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, accusing the Trudeau government of double standards when it comes to human rights.
“In the eyes of some people in Canada, similar protests and demonstrations should be called differently in different places. In Hong Kong it’s a ‘human rights movement’, but in Canada it’s a ‘threat to democracy’,” an adviser to the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. China, Wang Wenbin, according to the official record.
He was responding at a press conference to a question from a media affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party about the convoy of truckers that had occupied Ottawa for three weeks, and dislodged the day before after a slow and methodical police operation lasting several days.
In a post on Twitterthe Chinese Embassy in Canada described the events as “a violent dispersal of the ‘freedom convoy'” using cayenne pepper, stun grenades and batons.
The spokesperson recalled that Canada had supported protests since 2019 for democracy in Hong Kong. According to the Chinese version of the events, “radical elements attacked the police and deliberately disturbed public order in Hong Kong”, summarized Wang Wenbin.
” [Le Canada] gratuitously criticized, slandered and smeared the Hong Kong police. Why this difference? […] Such a double standard is unacceptable. Canada should seriously reflect on itself,” he concluded.
Chinese propaganda
“This is another example of the propaganda machine at work, trying to connect two unrelated events. In the case of Hong Kong, it was for democracy”, analyzes the former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques, in an interview with Homework.
He points out that China had also accused the Hong Kong protests of receiving funding from foreign interests. In Canada, a significant part of the funding for the “freedom convoy”, which was eventually blocked by the authorities, did indeed come from American donors.
“We see more and more attempts by China to justify themselves, and to attack us on the level of human rights and democratic freedoms by using examples like this. I think we have to expect it to multiply in the future, and this to undermine our position, to prevent us from being able to accuse them of anything, ”warns Mr. Saint-Jacques.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, an influential “freedom convoy” account on Monday shared the comments of Chinese officials, who did not show any particular sympathy for protesters in Ottawa compared to those in Hong Kong.