China Review News: On March 22, the EU, the UK and Canada announced unilateral sanctions against some Chinese individuals and entities citing so-called human rights issue in Xinjiang. On the same day, the US announced sanctions against two Chinese officials of the Xinjiang government as a complementary action to the above-mentioned sanctions. The foreign ministers of the US, the UK and Canada issued a joint statement to pressure China. What is China's response?
Hua Chunying: China strongly condemns the imposition of sanctions by the US, Canada, the UK and the EU on individuals and entities in Xinjiang under the pretext of human rights. This move is based on nothing but lies and disinformation. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned ambassadors of the EU and the UK respectively to lodge solemn representations. Last night, at the earliest time possible, China stated its solemn position and announced sanctions against relevant individuals and entities on the European side. China has also lodged solemn representations with the US and Canadian side.
Over the past 40 years, the population of the Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang has increased from 5.5 million to 12.8 million, and the average life expectancy has increased from 30 to 72 years. People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including the Uyghurs, enjoy each and every constitutional and lawful right. The fact that Xinjiang residents of various ethnic groups enjoy stability, security, development and progress, makes it one of the most successful human rights stories.
However, some politicians in the US, the UK, Canada and the EU clearly don't want to acknowledge this fact. They grabbed the so-called "evidence" maliciously fabricated by some anti-China politicians and scholars, even though the so-called "facts" are nothing but patchwork based on false "internal documents", "victim statements" and information from unknown sources. They have even taken out of context and distorted Chinese official documents and data. All this proves that it's never human rights and truth that they care about. They just do not want to see China's success, development and better livelihood. That's why they have been using human rights issues as a pretext for interfering in China's internal affairs and frustrate China's development. What they have done is utter denigration and offense to the reputation and dignity of the Chinese people, blatant interference of China's internal affairs, and grave violation of China's sovereignty and security interests.
It must be pointed out that these countries, who proclaim themselves to be "judges" of human rights and are keen to lecture others, have an ignoble record on human rights. They are not in the position to criticize China, much less to shift blames to China for what they have committed.
As you know, during the 400 years of transatlantic slave trade, colonists from the US, the UK and France transported 12 million enslaved Africans to the Americas, in addition to another 10 million who died during transportation. In the US, people like George Floyd still can't breathe. As pointed out by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination long ago, African descendants in the US and the UK face systemic racism on health, employment, education, fair trial and other rights.
As early as in the beginning of the 20th century, German colonists slaughtered indigenous Namibian tribes. Between 1904 and 1908, German military killed over 100,000 indigenous people, including 3/4 of the Herero people and over 1/2 of the Nama people. United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights said in a report that this is the first genocide in the 20th century. During WWII, Nazi Germany slaughtered almost six million Jews, including one million children. It is reported that some in the US, the UK and their allies violated the Geneva Conventions and brutally killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan, which constitutes war crimes.
The French army massacred 5.5 million people in Algeria during the colonial period, which is crimes against humanity. The Algerian President said that Algeria will never sacrifice history or memory.
In the 1870s, the Canadian government included assimilation of indigenous people in its official agenda and openly advocated the killing of the Indian bloodline. Starting with indigenous children, residential schools were set up to carry out cultural genocide policies. Incomplete statistics show over 150,000 indigenous children were sent to such schools, of which more than 50,000 died of abuses.
We all remember that the US and the UK, among others, used some test tube of washing powder and a staged video as evidence to launch wars against sovereign countries including Iraq and Syria, which caused untold casualties of innocent civilians, tore apart and displaced numerous families. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Syrian crisis. In Syria alone, 350,000 people have been killed in the war, their families have been destroyed and their lives greatly afflicted. Shouldn't the perpetrators be sanctioned?
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Libya's civil war. France, the UK and the EU, among others, launched the war in Libya, creating a large-scale humanitarian disaster, which is the root cause of the current migrant and refugee issues and an important factor leading to regional turbulence. More than 400,000 people remain displaced within Libya and more than a million are in urgent need of assistance. Shouldn't the perpetrators be held accountable?
These countries show no repentance over the turmoil they created in other countries, and even go further to impose unilateral sanctions on others in the name of human rights, severely jeopardizing the rights to life, health and development of people in relevant countries. In the face of the epidemic, these above-mentioned most developed countries have turned a blind eye to their people's rights to life and health, leading to losses of tens of hundreds of lives. In pursuit of "vaccine nationalism" , they've hoarded vaccines far in excess of their population's needs, leaving developing countries struggling with insufficient vaccines.
We can't help but asking: how could people have any right if they lost their lives? The United States and the West have been trumpeting protecting human rights, but who and what right on earth are they protecting? In what way are they respecting and protecting human rights? Shouldn't they feel shameful?
These a few countries are obsessed with lecturing others on human rights. But facts in the past have proved that they are neither qualified or capable of doing so. We hope they will understand that China today is not the same as Iraq, Libya or Syria, still less what it was 120 years ago. The days when foreign powers could force China to open its doors with cannons are long gone; also gone are the days when several so-called scholars and state media could unscrupulously malign China in collusion without being punished. We urge them not to underestimate Chinese people's firm determination to defend national interests and dignity. It's a courtesy to reciprocate what we receive. They will have to pay a price for their ignorance and arrogance.