I mean, Japan has 40-some. India has 30-some. The U.S. has, as you said, 176. We don't have anything like that number of diplomats in China. Why isn't it reciprocal?
When they're accepted by Canada, diplomats are supposed to provide what diplomatic function they will be maintaining. The question is, are Chinese diplomats so inefficient that they need large numbers to engage in legitimate diplomatic function, or is it that about 70% of them are engaged in espionage, influence operations, harassment of Canadians of Chinese origin and other things that are not consistent with their diplomatic function? I would like to see their cohort cut down to the number they need to function in a diplomatic way.
In Ottawa, it's not just that former convent on St. Patrick Street. They have other buildings in our city to accommodate the large number of Chinese operatives, not to speak of proxies being run by Chinese diplomats in these so-called police stations, which are similarly engaged in activities that I believe are in violation of Canadian law. The perpetuators should be made accountable for that.
We're not expelling people who I believe CSIS knows are espionage agents. The only one we expelled was Zhao Wei after it was exposed in the press that this gentleman had been involved in activities to pressure the family of Michael Chong.
I just don't want any Chinese spies to be operating freely in our country. The fact that we don't expel any of them and that we don't make any of them a persona non grata or bring their proxies to Canadian courts to be made accountable for these alleged activities sends a signal to China that Canada is open territory for this kind of thing. It also sends a signal to the United States that Canada is open territory for Chinese infiltration: Can the United States trust us in important collaboration on security and military issues?