New Zealand yesterday shied away from labeling China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority genocide, once again leaving Wellington out of step with its Western allies.
The New Zealand Parliament unanimously passed a motion expressing “grave concern” at human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, but only after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s ruling Labour Party insisted that any reference to genocide be scrubbed out.
New Zealand Member of Parliament Brooke van Velden said that, while allies such as the US, Britain and Canada had called what was taking place genocide, it was “intolerable” that New Zealand refused to use the term to avoid upsetting its largest trading partner.
“The world is looking to us now to see what standard we are going to set — can the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] play us off as the weakest link in the Western alliance,” she said. “We may face the threat of loss if we speak our mind, but we face a much greater danger if we don’t.”
At least 1 million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in camps in Xinjiang, say rights groups, who accuse authorities of forcibly sterilizing women and imposing forced labor.
Van Velden, from the minor opposition ACT Party, received support on the genocide question from the Greens, who said that it was “stunningly callous” to water down the condemnation of China’s actions to maintain trade relations.
“It’s absolutely morally indefensible and a breach of New Zealand’s legal obligations,” Greens Member of Parliament Golriz Ghahraman said.
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta told parliament that New Zealand had raised its concerns about the situation in Xinjiang with China at the highest levels of government.
However, she said that Wellington only recognized a genocide when it had been defined as such by international courts, citing the Holocaust, as well as atrocities in Rwanda and Cambodia.
“We have not formally designated the situation as constituting a ‘genocide,’ this is not due to a lack of concern,” she said. “Genocide is the gravest of international crimes and a formal legal determination should only be made following a rigorous assessment on the basis of international law.”
Ardern this week conceded New Zealand’s differences with China on human rights were becoming “harder to reconcile,” but said that her government would continue to point out areas of concern to Beijing.
Ardern’s government has taken flak over its meek criticisms of China’s rights record, leading to accusations that New Zealand is a weak link in the US-led Five Eyes intelligence network.
The Chinese embassy in Wellington did not respond to a request for comment.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in