Canada expresses solidarity with Uyghur, Tibetan targets of China’s sanctions

The Canadian government has on Dec 24 condemned China’s imposition of sanctions on two Canadian civil society organisations and 20 Tibetan and Uyghur advocates associated with them, calling it an arbitrary targeting of those speaking for human rights.

Canada also expressed solidarity with the targeted groups, and called on China to “respect its obligations under international law.”

Earlier, citing the country’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, the Chinese foreign ministry said Dec 22 that those placed on the sanctions list were the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, the Canada Tibet Committee and 20 people from these two organisations. Of them, five were from the committee, including its chair Samphe Lhalungpa. Those from the Uyghur side included former World Uyghur Congress Director of the Legal Committee, Mehmet Tohti, along with 14 of its staff members and experts.

China called its action a countermeasure against Canada’s sanctioning earlier this month of eight former and serving Chinese officials, responsible for serious human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet. They included Chen Quanguo, the former Communist Party chief of Xinjiang (as well as Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR, before that), and Wu Yingjie, former party head of TAR. The others included  Erkin Tuniyaz, Shohret Zakir, and Peng Jiarui.

The Canadian statement underlined that Canada would not tolerate any threats, acts of violence, or harassment against people in, or their families and friends, because of their political opinions or to silence dissenting viewpoints.

“Multiple independent United Nations experts and other established multilateral mechanisms have called on China to respond meaningfully to credible allegations of human rights violations. China must respect its obligations under international law.”

Saying its own record was open to scrutiny, the Canadian government statement urged China to do the same, saying, “Canada views scrutiny of its own human rights record as an opportunity to improve its performance, and continues to call on China to do so, as well.”