QUEBEC CITY - The official Opposition is joining the chorus of calls for MP Bob Dechert to resign.

"He should step down and there should be an investigation," Opposition leader Nycole Turmel told reporters in Quebec City, where the NDP is holding a caucus meeting.

"We believe it is inappropriate what happened. He's a key person."

Dechert is the parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and was recently found to have been writing amorous e-mails to Shi Rong, a member of the Communist-controlled Xinhua Chinese news agency.

Security experts say it's a serious threat to Canadian national security because Xinhua is crawling with spies who simply pose as journalists so they can report back to their puppet masters in China.

There no evidence that Rong is a spy or that Dechert told her anything. Both are married.

Dechert was a key player in the unite-the-right movement in Ontario and Prime Minister Stephen Harper reportedly values him.

"Mr. Dechert has denied any inappropriate behaviour," senior government spokesman Chris Day said. "We have no information to suggest otherwise."

The government won't say if there is an investigation underway, as there was when former Foreign Affairs minister Maxime Bernier was turfed. Bernier left government documents on his girlfriend's nightstand and was fired for the infraction in 2008.

"I am astonished that Prime Minister Harper continues to allow this guy (Dechert) to stay in his position," Maggie Hou, spokesman for the outlawed Democratic Party of China, said from her Ottawa office.

"We know the Chinese government steals Canadian military information, financial information and hacks into computers."