Canada was one of the first Western countries to recognize communist China, establishing ties in 1970 under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

China has announced the expulsion of a Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa ordering a Chinese consular official to leave over alleged threats he made against a Canadian lawmaker and his family.

The Canadian government is expelling a Chinese diplomat whom Canada’s spy agency alleges was involved in a plot to intimidate an opposition lawmaker and his relatives in Hong Kong.

Canada’s foreign minister says the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker.

(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)BEIJING – China announced new sanctions against U.S. and Canadian officials in a growing political and economic feud over its policies in the traditionally Muslim region of Xinjiang. The commission's vice chair, Tony Perkins, was also included on the sanctions list, along with Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Chong and the body’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights. China announced sanctions Friday against British officials and H&M products were dropped from Chinese websites over their opposition to buying cotton from Xinjiang. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the sanctions “baseless" retaliation for U.S. measures against Chinese officials. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said China’s decision to sanction an opposition Conservative lawmaker as well as a parliamentary subcommittee is an attack on freedom of speech regarding human rights abuses in Xinjiang.