I don’t know if Uyghurs are so much forgotten as ignored. Since 2014, the
Chinese government has been accused by various organizations, such as
Human Rights Watch of subjecting Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to widespread
persecution, including forced sterilization and forced labor.
Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been
arbitrarily detained in the
Xinjiang internment camps since 2017; Chinese government officials claim that these camps, created under CCP general secretary
Xi Jinping's
administration, serve the goals of ensuring adherence to
Chinese Communist Party(CCP) ideology, preventing
separatism, fighting
terrorism, and providing
vocational training to Uyghurs.
Various scholars, human rights organizations and governments consider abuses perpetrated against the Uyghurs to amount to
crimes against humanity, or even genocide.
Then closer to home, Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion in Feb 2021 saying China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide, putting pressure on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to follow suit.
Canada’s House of Commons voted 266-0 for the motion brought by the opposition Conservative Party. Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained from the vote, although Liberal backbenchers widely backed it.
(There’s 338 potential votes in Parliament meaning about 72 Core Liberals abstained)
Trudeau’s Conservative rivals have been pressuring him to get tougher on China but here we are. Oh well…
(Former U.S. President Donald Trump – on his last full day in office last month – said China had committed “genocide and crimes against humanity” by repressing Uighur Muslims but Trump’s a bastard so nothing to see here)
China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as “vocational training centers” to stamp out extremism and give people new skills, and which others have called concentration camps. Beijing denies accusations of abuses in Xinjiang.
Citing testimony, documents and media reports of human rights abuses against Uighurs, Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong said: “We can no longer ignore this. We must call it for what it is — a genocide.”
Trudeau has been reluctant to use the word genocide (unless it’s against Israel or Canada), suggesting that seeking broad consensus among Western allies on Chinese human rights issues would be the best approach.
OTTAWA — Canada’s parliament passed a non-binding motion on Monday saying China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocid…
nationalpost.com