Winnipeg mayor meets Chinese ambassador, gets shredded on Twitter

“Pleased to visit with Chinese Ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu. Thank you for a productive discussion about our Sister City Chengdu, trade, and Winnipeg’s goal of becoming a leader in the protection and promotion of human rights.”

You can already see the problems here.

First, if you’re going to talk about the “protection and promotion of human rights,” you probably shouldn’t be meeting with an ambassador from a country that has a horrific human rights record like China.

China has at least one million innocent Muslim people in concentration camps, is committing a cultural genocide, is breaking their “One Country, Two Systems” pledge in Hong Kong, and is threatening their neighbours.

Also, to “thank” China’s ambassador after that same ambassador threatened Canada, and while China continues to jail the two Michaels is an absolute disgrace.

Unsurprisingly, Bowman is being ripped following the Tweet.

Below, you can see how badly Bowman got ratioed, with just 26 retweets and 482 comments.

Here is some of what people said:

“How much money did communists pay you to make you praise their ‘human rights’ disaster?! Swear you don’t know Tian’anmen Square Massacre, live organ harvesting, Uyghurs in concentration camps, HK protests being brutally cracked down! Where is your conscience sir?!”

“Whose going to tell him they have two of our people in torture like conditions?”

“#TheMichaels will appreciate the irony in the Human Rights part…”

“Human rights and ‘industrial scale murder for organs’ are not compatible”

“It’s time to drop Chengdu as a sister city. And certainly time to revoke any future invitations to ANYONE who denies the existence of these concentration camps. Oh, and you’ve officially lost my vote.”

Bowman was also ripped by some Canadian leaders, including Conservative MP James Bezan, and former Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney:

“Statements like this play into the PRC’s agenda of obfuscation, and actually undermine efforts to protect human rights. They reflect the false assumption that diplomacy cannot cope with plain-speaking and hard truths”

“Too bad @Mayor_Bowman was played. The only discussions with Chinese officials should be about the release of Michael Kovrig & Michael Spavor, removing Chinese sanctions on our agriculture products, & respecting human rights in China. Until then, everything else is off the table.”

Bowman has made a fool of himself, and sent a message that will encourage China to treat Canada even worse, as they once again see that the only response from Canada’s political elites is pathetic weakness.

If Bowman had any integrity he would listen to Yaakov Pollak and resign.