Sanctions are being applied to officials complicit in the Uyghur genocide.
Canada has joined with top allies in sanctioning Chinese officials complicit in the genocide of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province.
Some of the sanctions will be applied under the Magnitsky Act, with the EU sanctioning 4 officials today.
As reported by Politico, “The four names on the EU’s list include Zhu Hailun, former deputy Communist Party head in Xinjiang, and Wang Junzheng, party secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Wang Mingshan, member of the Xinjiang’s Communist Party standing committee, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (PSB) are also targeted.
According to the EU, the listed individuals and entities will be subject to an asset freeze in the EU, as well as a travel ban in Europe. It’s also illegal for EU individuals and entities to make funds available to those listed.”
Here’s what the Canadian government said in a statement:
“Today, Canada announced it is imposing new sanctions against 4 officials and 1 entity under the Special Economic Measures (People’s Republic of China) Regulations, based on their participation in gross and systematic human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). These measures are being taken in coordination with the United States and the United Kingdom, and in solidarity with the European Union.
These sanctions underscore Canada’s grave concerns with the ongoing human rights violations occurring in the XUAR, affecting Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities. Mounting evidence points to systemic, state-led human rights violations by Chinese authorities. This includes the mass arbitrary detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities on the basis of their religion and ethnicity, as well as political re-education, forced labour, torture and forced sterilization.
Canada has raised the issue with Chinese authorities, and consistently voiced its deep concern over the repression of minorities in international forums in cooperation with partners, including at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Canada will continue to call on the People’s Republic of China to adhere to basic human rights and allow for meaningful, unfettered access to the XUAR so that impartial experts can observe and report on the situation first-hand. In the meantime, Canada will work collaboratively with partners to address the dire human rights situation in Xinjiang, including by ensuring consequences for this repression, with a view to ending it. We have the responsibility to work with others in the international community to ensure that any such allegations are investigated by an independent international body of legal experts.”
As Terry Glavin noted on Twitter, the government seems to have finally been shamed into this:
Shamed into sanctions. https://t.co/uatn2IIacN
— Terry Glavin 格立文 (@TerryGlavin) March 22, 2021
While it has taken far too long, and while the Canadian government is still far too weak towards China, these co-ordinated sanctions are showing how democratic nations can no longer ignore China’s actions, and a counterbalancing coalition against China’s aggressiveness is emerging.
Spencer Fernando
