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| The Chinese flag, the five star red flag, is flying in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China. © AFP=News1 |
The Canadian Parliament passed a resolution on the 22nd (local time) that regulates the Chinese government’s suppression of the Uighurs as’genocide’.
According to Reuters and AFP, the resolution, initiated by the opposition Conservative Party, passed unanimously in the Canadian House of Representatives with 226 votes in favor and 0 votes against, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ministers of the ruling Liberal Party abstained.
Although there is no binding force, the resolution made Canada the second country after the United States to recognize China’s suppression of Uighurs as genocide, Reuters reported.
Earlier, on the 19th of last month, the US State Department stipulated that the policy targeting Muslims and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang in China was genocide.
On that day, the House of Representatives also adopted a revised resolution urging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to change the location of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing next year if the massacre of the Uighurs continues.
Relations between Canada and China have been in tension since 2018.
In 2018, when Canada arrested China’s Huawei Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou for extradition to the United States on charges of violating Iranian sanctions, it set fire to detain Canadian citizens in China.
However, Prime Minister Trudeau has been reluctant to use the word genocide, suggesting that seeking broad agreement between Western allies on human rights issues in China is the best way.
As a result, the opposition Conservative Party has pressured Prime Minister Trudeau to show a stronger attitude, Reuters reported.
One source told Reuters, “It is very likely that the relationship with China will be discussed at the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and US President Joe Biden on the afternoon of the 23rd.”
Since 2018, the Chinese government has built a group housing facility in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to force the assimilation of Uyghurs.
The Chinese government describes it as a “vocational education facility”, but the international community calls it a concentration camp.
According to the United Nations, at least 1 million Uighurs and Muslims are detained in concentration camps.