The Canadian parliament on Monday passed a non-binding motion saying China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide, putting pressure on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to follow suit.
The Canadian House of Commons voted 266-0 for the motion brought by the opposition Conservative Party.
Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained from the vote, although Liberal backbenchers widely backed it.
Photo: Reuters
The motion was also amended just before the vote to call on the International Olympic Committee to move next year’s Winter Olympics from Beijing if the treatment continues.
Trudeau’s Conservative rivals have been pressuring him to get tougher on China. After Canada arrested Huawei Technologies Co (華為) chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) in 2018 on a US warrant, China detained two Canadians on spying charges, igniting bilateral tensions that still linger.
China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills, and which others have called concentration camps.
Beijing denies accusations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Citing testimony, documents and media reports of human rights abuses against Uighurs, Conservative MP Michael Chong said: “We can no longer ignore this. We must call it for what it is — a genocide.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) yesterday said that the motion “disregards facts and common sense,” adding that Beijing had “lodged stern representations” with Canada.
Chinese Ambassador to Ottawa Cong Peiwu (叢培武) denied accusations of genocide.
“Western countries are in no position to say what the human rights situation in China looks like,” Cong said in an interview before the vote.
“There is no so-called genocide in Xinjiang at all,” he said.
Trudeau has been reluctant to use the word genocide, suggesting that seeking broad consensus among Western allies on Chinese human rights issues would be the best approach.
“Moving forward multilaterally will be the best way to demonstrate the solidarity of Western democracies ... that are extremely concerned and dismayed by reports of what’s going on in Xinjiang,” Trudeau said on Friday after speaking to fellow G7 leaders.
Trudeau and US President Joe Biden were to hold a virtual bilateral meeting yesterday afternoon, and relations with China were likely to be discussed, a government source said.
Former US president Donald Trump — on his last full day in office last month — said China had committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” by repressing Uighur Muslims.
The Biden administration is trying to ensure that the genocide declaration is upheld, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, his nominee to be ambassador to the UN.
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