Resurfaced video of Justin Trudeau confessing his admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship” has gone viral on social media.

The Prime Minister made the remarks back in 2013 at a ladies-night themed fundraiser in Toronto.

When asked which nation’s administration he most admired, Trudeau noted the “flexibility” the Chinese Communist Party’s “dictatorship” allows.

“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China, because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say we need to go greenest fastest. We need to start, y’know, investing in solar. There is a flexibility that, I know Stephen Harper must dream about, of having a dictatorship that he can do everything he wanted. That I find quite interesting.”

“But Sun News can now report that I prefer China,” he added.

The National Post reported at the time that Trudeau’s Prime Minister father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was at times accused of admiring communist authoritarian regimes.

The outlet noted Bob Palmondon’s book The Truth About Trudeau, which claimed: “the elder Mr. Trudeau was complimentary towards several leftist regimes in his day, including Soviet Russia, Fidel Castro’s Cuba and China under Chairman Mao.”

According to the piece, “in 1952, Mr. Trudeau travelled to China with members of the Communist Party of Canada. Later, he supported the Soviet-dominated authorities who imposed martial law in Poland. He also admired the Siberian city of Norilsk until a Soviet dissident reminded him that the town had been built by prison labour.”