Canada hypocritical to label Xinjiang genocide, Chinese state newspaper says
- Communist Party mouthpiece says Canada is ‘notorious for its human rights record’, citing past use of residential schools for indigenous people
- Beijing continues to lash out over Canadian parliament’s motion calling its policies in Xinjiang a genocide against Uygurs and other Muslim minorities
“Canada is notorious for its human rights record, but some politicians have indulged in ideological confrontation and cooked up an anti-China farce,” read a Sunday commentary in Zhong Sheng, a column in party mouthpiece People’s Daily that tackles international issues. The pseudonym translates as “the voice of China”.
“It’s doomed to fail and to be despised,” the column said.
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The People’s Daily commentary said Canada should instead reflect upon itself. “In 2015, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called the practice of residential schools for indigenous people a ‘cultural genocide’,” the article read.
The last such residential school was closed in the late 1990s.
The column also referred to another Canadian report released in 2019 by the National Inquiry of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which concluded that decades of policy and state indifference had amounted to genocide against indigenous peoples.
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The Canadian government, including Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper, have apologised on multiple occasions for these past policies. The People’s Daily article did not mention those statements.
“Some Canadian politicians have not been to Xinjiang or even China,” the column said. “To disseminate lies and add fuel to attempts to disrupt Xinjiang’s social stability is in itself a breach of human rights.”
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Satellite images show China has bulldozed Uygur burial sites in Xinjiang
The US House of Representatives two weeks ago reintroduced a bipartisan bill to ban imports from Xinjiang unless it is proved they are not produced using forced labour.
The Chinese government has taken offence at accusations over its Xinjiang policies, but its defence has not convinced critics.
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Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin last week said an invitation to visit Xinjiang had been sent to European delegations in China, who had yet to accept.
