Canada sanctions 4 Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang

The statement said mounting evidence shows the Chinese state is responsible for arbitrarily imprisoning more than one million people on the basis of their religion and ethnicity, and for subjecting them to “political re-education, forced labour, torture and forced sterilization.”

China has denied all reports of human rights abuses in the region, claiming that the camps are vocational training centres needed to fight extremism.

“We remain deeply concerned by the egregious human rights violations that are taking place in Xinjiang at the hands of the Chinese state,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau in a news release. 

“Today, we are joining our partners in calling on the government of China to put an end to this systematic campaign of repression against Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities and to hold those responsible to account.”

The four officials Canada is targeting with asset freezes and a travel ban are:

• Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
• Wang Mingshan, secretary of the political and legal affairs committee in Xinjiang and former director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
• Zhu Hailun, former deputy party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
• Wang Junzheng, secretary of the party committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Canada also announced sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau, a state-run organization responsible for security and policing.

Britain and the European Union announced sanctions on the same four officials earlier in the day. China responded quickly by sanctioning 10 European officials, including European lawmakers.

The U.S. Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on Wang Mingshan and Chen, and has previously sanctioned Zhu and Wang Junzheng.

The sanctions come exactly a month after MPs voted to label China’s actions in Xinjiang region a “genocide.” Liberal cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, abstained from that vote.

The Liberal government has been reluctant to use the term “genocide” to describe Bejing’s actions in Xinjiang but it has faced increasing pressure from opposition parties to take a stronger stand on China.