OTTAWA -- Speaking with world leaders on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinforced the governmentâs condemnation of accounts of human rights violations in Chinaâs Xinjiang province after China announced sanctions against Canadian parliamentarians over the weekend.
Trudeau said Canada has been "strong" in its defence of human rights and continues to work in a "coordinated" manner with international allies in holding China accountable for the treatment of the minority Muslim population in the region.
"Our concerns about whatâs going on there are significant and need to be responded to by the Chinese government," he said.
Days after Canadaâs decision to join the U.S., EU, and U.K. in levying sanctions against Chinese state officials, Chinaâs Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release it has banned Conservative MP Michael Chong from entering the country and prohibited any Chinese citizen from doing business with him. The sanctions, announced Saturday, also targeted the federal subcommittee on which Chong sits, which is studying the situation of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China's Xinjiang region.
There have long been reports gathered by journalists and international human rights advocates exposing instances of state surveillance, mass rape, forced labour, sterilization, and torture at Chinaâs "re-education" camps for Uyghurs.
In a posted over the weekend, Chinaâs consul general to Rio de Janeiro Li Yang called Trudeau a "boy," stating "your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the US. Spendthrift!!!" with an accompanying photo of the prime minister.
On Monday, Trudeau said he also welcomes news that China is negotiating the terms of a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Xinjiang, which UN Secretary General António Guterres added is still being ironed out.
"We are seriously engaging with the Chinese government in order to be able to have the mission of the Human Rights High Commissioner and to make sure that mission has no inacceptable limitations. So I hope that these negotiations will be concluded positively," said Guterres.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's but that the purpose of the visit is to "promote exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, rather than to conduct the so-called âinvestigationâ based on presumption of guilt," he said.
In an interview on ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channelâs Power Play with Evan Solomon on Monday, Chong said the sanctions levied against him are "confirmation" his efforts to bring to light Chinaâs "gross violations of human rights and international law" were effective.
In late February Chong led the Conservative-backed motion to have Parliament formally label Chinaâs treatment of the Uyghurs a genocide. Almost all MPs â including the majority of Liberal MPs who participated â voted in favor of the motion, while Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau abstained and the rest of cabinet was absent.
Chong said itâs not a coincidence China didnât choose to sanction Trudeauâs front bench.
"Itâs interesting to note that China didnât sanction the Liberal government, it didnât sanction Liberal cabinet ministers, and I think the reason for that is they got a pass because they abstained from the vote," he said.
"I think the government needs to do much more to hold China accountable for these violations of international law."
He said that includes excluding Huawei from Canadaâs 5G rollout, banning cotton imports from China, and suspending payments to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
With a file from The Canadian Press.