In a clip recorded by the media pool at the G20 summit in Indonesia, a visibly frustrated Xi takes the Canadian prime minister aside and says it was “not appropriate” to release details of an earlier conversation between the two leaders to the media. suggesting that Trudeau lacked “sincerity” in his approach. “What we’re talking about has been leaked to the newspaper, that’s not appropriate,” Xi tells Trudeau through a translator. “And that’s not how the conversation was conducted,” he added. The tentative exchange came a day after government sources said that during an earlier conversation on the sidelines of the summit, Trudeau had expressed “serious concerns” to Xi about China’s increasingly aggressive “interference activities.” Xi’s outburst on Wednesday was a rare break from his usually careful public appearances. “In Canada, we believe in free, open and honest dialogue and we will continue to have that,” Trudeau said, cutting off Xi’s translator. “We will continue to try to work constructively together, but there will be things we disagree on.” Waving his hands, Xi told Trudeau that the two must “first create the conditions.” The pair ended their conversation by shaking hands and walking off in opposite directions, with the Canadian prime minister looking fired from the meeting. The awkward exchange — and the earlier conversation — followed repeated warnings from Trudeau and other officials that China had tried to undermine Canada’s democracy. Canadian intelligence officials told MPs in January they believe China interfered in the 2019 federal election, and media reports earlier this month claimed Beijing had funded a secret network of candidates. After the first conversation, Trudeau’s team said he and Xi also discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea and the importance of the Cop15 biodiversity conference in December, where China and Canada will co-host the nations in an effort “to protect nature and fight climate change,” the source said. With relations between the two countries still strained, Trudeau was left out of any official meeting with Xi – a diplomatic injustice for the prime minister. The Chinese leader found time in Bali to meet with US President Joe Biden in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than three and a half hours. Xi also met with French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Speaking to reporters after the tense interaction, Trudeau said not every conversation with the Chinese leadership would be “easy,” but added that Canada must be able to “engage constructively and directly while at the same time being there to challenge the human rights and the human rights and values that matter to Canadians.”
