BEIJING: The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Embassy to Canada firmly oppose Canada’s interference in Xinjiang and its calls to remove the 2022 Winter Olympic Games from Beijing, after the Canadian parliament passed a motion that determined policies in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region constituted “genocide.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at Tuesday’s routine press conference that some Canadian politicians’ slander against China has violated principles of international relations and China has lodged solemn representations to Canada.
Xinjiang-related issues are anti-violence, anti-terrorism and anti-extremism. Adopting experiences from other countries, the autonomous region has achieved stability and prosperity with no terrorist incidents in more than four years, Wang said. The Uygur population increased from 10 million in 2010 to 12.7 million in 2018. The 25 percent increase in the Uygur population is higher than the 14 percent increase of the autonomous region’s population as a whole, and way much higher than the 2 percent increase of the Han population there, the spokesperson said.
Some Canadians should abandon their anti-China instinct and see China objectively rather than indulging in ideological confrontation or placing domestic political struggle or party interests above the China-Canada relations, Wang warned.
Li Haidong, a professor of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that Canada over the past a few years has entered a dead end in its China policy, and one important reason is it has followed the US too closely without taking into consideration its own national interests.
The motion has put Canada’s diplomatic autonomy in question, Li noted. Li also noted that boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics for political reasons goes against athletes who love sports and want to earn honor for their countries. Canada should not overestimate its capability to spread rumors and advocate the boycott. The Chinese Embassy in Canada in a statement released on Tuesday also strongly condemned the Canadian move, which is malicious provocation of 1.4 billion Chinese people.
The Chinese people stand with their government in denouncing rumors and slander against Xinjiang. If Canada continues such deeds, it will not only risk bilateral relations but also face a backlash from Chinese people, Li said.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
