The House of Commons of Canada voted 266-0 on Monday to recognize the “documented campaign of mass internment, forced labor and forced sterilization of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang as” genocide. ”
Why it’s important: The vote is likely to put pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to harden China. Trudeau and a majority of his cabinet members abstained from Monday’s vote.
- The non-binding motion also calls on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing if China does not stop the persecution of Uighurs and other ethnic minority groups.
The big picture: Trudeau has been reluctant to use the word genocide, calling it a loaded term and “suggesting that seeking broad consensus among Western allies on Chinese human rights issues would be the best approach,” according to Reuters.
What they say: “Western countries are not in a position to say what the human rights situation in China is like,” Cong Peiwu, the Chinese ambassador to Ottawa, told Reuters. “There is no genocide in Xinjiang.”
In depth: