China dismisses Canadian complaints over Xinjiang human rights

OTTAWA — China on Monday (June 24) dismissed Canadian complaints about what Ottawa said were “credible reports” of human rights violations in the western region of Xinjiang, saying Ottawa should focus instead on its own issues with discrimination.

Canadian Ambassador Jennifer May visited Xinjiang June 19 to 22, the first such visit by a Canadian envoy in a decade, and “raised concerns over credible reports of systematic violations of human rights”, the Canadian government said on Sunday.

In a response emailed to Reuters, China’s embassy in Ottawa decried what it called the “same old rhetoric, expressing so-called concerns based on fabricated rumours and reports”.

Canada, it said, had “repeatedly made unwarranted remarks about other countries’ human rights situation, while turning a blind eye to its own racial issues”, citing the challenges faced by the country’s indigenous population.

A 2022 report by the then UN human rights chief said China’s treatment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in the Xinjiang region in the country’s far west could constitute crimes against humanity.

May visited Xinjiang a few weeks after Canada said it had warned China against meddling in its elections.

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