Canada fits definition of state committing genocide better than Xinjiang region,...

The Chinese government says Canada fits the definition of a state committing genocide better than the Xinjiang region, pointing to population growth rates – some inaccurate – which it says demonstrate it has not mistreated its population. Uyghur population.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also mocked the “ignorance” of Bob Rae, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, who said on Sunday “there is no doubt that ‘ there are aspects of what the Chinese are doing “in Xinjiang that” fall within the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention. “

Mr. Rae’s comments mark the latest escalation by the Canadian government in its condemnation of Chinese policy in Xinjiang, where women have been sterilized, large numbers forced into political indoctrination camps and mosques were demolished. Mr. Rae made the comments to the CBC, saying he called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to open an investigation into the genocide in Xinjiang.

On Monday, Mr. Zhao mocked Mr. Rae for his “ridiculous” remarks, citing population statistics as evidence. In Xinjiang, the Uyghur population grew by 25% between 2010 and 2018, he said, a rate he called “18 times the rate in Canada.” This would suggest that “it is the Canadians, rather than the Uyghurs, who are being persecuted,” he said, adding: “The ambassador should have done his homework in advance to avoid making a fool of himself.

Mr. Zhao, however, cited inaccurate figures. Canada’s population grew by more than 10% between 2010 and 2018, according to Statistics Canada.

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And Mr. Zhao has done nothing to refute the dramatic changes in Hotan and Kashgar, the Uyghur-dominated regions of Xinjiang, where birth rates fell more than 60% between 2015 and 2018, the Associated reported. Press. The Xinjiang Health Commission has called in public documents for population growth rates in some areas with large Uyghur communities to be significantly lower than 2016 levels, according to a study by US-based researcher Adrian Zenz. United and Principal Investigator in China. Commemorative Foundation of Communism.

“To Guma.” [Pishan] County, the 2019 family planning budget plan specifically provided for 8,064 female sterilizations, ”Zenz wrote in a report this summer.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as acts which include “the imposition of measures to prevent births in the country. [a] group ”, as well as“ causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of [a] group. “

Some ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang who went through political indoctrination and vocational training centers described conditions so oppressive that they attempted suicide.

But few are ready to accuse China of genocide. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that China’s actions in Xinjiang “remind us of what happened in the 1930s in Germany,” while a US Senate resolution said the campaign for the China against Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other Muslim minority groups… constitutes genocide. “

Chinese authorities have said they have protected human rights in Xinjiang by bringing stability and helping to grow the economy. The Chinese government has defended its use of forced political indoctrination as a necessary remedy for radical thinking. More recently, he said that the “students” of the indoctrination centers had all “graduated”.

The Chinese government has publicly stated that it has invited a delegation from the European Union to see the “real situation” in Xinjiang. This visit did not take place because the two parties have not yet agreed on terms.

Other governments, including Australia, have refused to use the term “genocide”, saying such a decision is up to the courts.

Researchers argue, however, that the key issue is not proof but national will.

“There is a plethora of evidence in this case, but I think the biggest problem will be the political capacity of international institutions to challenge such a powerful state” as China, said Sean Roberts, international affairs specialist at the George Washington University who is the author of The war against the Uyghurs: China’s domestic campaign against a Muslim minority.

It is important that Ottawa gives its voice. But it “will take a broad coalition of different states to change Beijing’s behavior.” If this is followed by others, it will indeed be significant, especially if those other states extend beyond the US, the EU and the British Commonwealth.

National leaders should also consider measures outside of a genocide case, said Timothy Grose, an academic specializing in ethnic politics in Xinjiang and China at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

This could include “a broad boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics,” he said.

“It is now up to world leaders and global companies to persuade China to end its state violence against the Uyghurs,” he said.

“A boycott would devastate the revenues of host city Beijing, and the negative journalistic attention that a boycott would attract – it would happen on a global scale – would almost certainly strain the rulers.”

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