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China accuses Canada of "provocations," threatens "serious consequences"
This comes after Canada’s claim last week that Chinese fighter jets had “buzzed” Canadian air crews while patrolling Asian skies in a joint effort to enforce UN sanctions imposed on North Korea. The Canadian crews were keeping an eye on possible violations of these sanctions by Pyongyang.
China’s foreign ministry warns Canada of “severe consequences” after accusing the Canadian military of “provocations” against their country. Specifically, China cites Ottawa’s step up of its reconnaissance flights in over Asia.
This comes after Canada’s claim last week that Chinese fighter jets had “buzzed” Canadian air crews while patrolling Asian skies in a joint effort to enforce UN sanctions imposed on North Korea. The Canadian crews were keeping an eye on possible violations of these sanctions by Pyongyang.
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Beijing finally responded to those claims and defended the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s actions “reasonable” and “professional”.
Today, China’s Ministry of Defense condemned Canada’s actions, claiming that their flight path and operations were a threat to China’s national security. China’s foreign ministry added that the Canadian air patrol was “unauthorized.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">China warns Canada over air patrols monitoring North Korea sanctions busting <a href="https://t.co/fxHSvHrKgD">https://t.co/fxHSvHrKgD</a></p>— CTV News (@CTVNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CTVNews/status/1533760871880613891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 6, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The spokesperson for the Chinese Defense Ministry, Wu Qian, said Beijing has made diplomatic efforts to resolve this with Canada. Reportedly, Qian stressed the severity of the situation to Ottawa and implored Canada to “strictly restrain” its forces and to avoid further provocations, “otherwise, all serious consequences arising from it shall be borne by the Canadian side”.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said, “The UN Security Council has never authorized any country to carry out military surveillance in the seas and airspace of other countries in the name of enforcing sanctions.”
Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau said, “Canada is an active part of an important mission in the North Pacific to ensure that the sanctions applied to North Korea are properly enforced and the fact that China would have chosen to do this is extremely troubling.”
These aerial confrontation follows an increased petitioning from Russia and China to ease the UN’s sanctions against North Korea on “humanitarian grounds”.
Earlier this year, both countries vetoed a proposal for new Sanctions against North Korea lead by the US after American intelligence suggested that Pyongyang was preparing to conduct nuclear testing.
