Canada has sanctioned eight senior Chinese officials for “grave human rights violations” against Falun Gong, Tibetans, and Uyghurs.
“Canada is deeply concerned by the human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet and against those who practise Falun Gong,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a
Dec. 10 release. “We call on the Chinese government to put an end to this systematic campaign of repression and uphold its international human rights obligations.”
In the statement, Global Affairs Canada said the ethnic and religious groups have faced severe mistreatment, including forced labour and torture, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Global Affairs expressed concern about the human rights abuses against Tibetans as well as ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region, where it said over one million people have been “arbitrarily detained” since 2017.
Global Affairs also noted that since 1999, Beijing has tried to “eliminate Falun Gong” in China through “arbitrary arrests, forced labour and torture.”
Canada
previously sanctioned four Chinese officials in
2021 for human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority group in Xinjiang. Global Affairs Canada said the latest round of sanctions coincides with International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
In a separate
press release, the government named Chen Quanguo, Tuniyaz Erkin, Zakir Shohrat, Peng Jiarui, Wu Yingjie, Liujun Huo, Zhang Hongbo, and You Quan as individuals targeted for sanctions under the
Special Economic Measures (People’s Republic of China) Regulations. These regulations bar Canadian individuals and businesses from transactions with the sanctioned persons, including freezing assets in Canada, blocking access to financial services, and prohibiting dealings with their property.
On the same day as Ottawa’s announcement, Wu, the Communist Party Secretary of Tibet—the highest-ranking position in the region—was expelled from the Party and removed from office. He is
under investigation for bribery.
During his tenure, Wu allegedly participated in at least two cases of persecution against local Falun Gong practitioners, according to
Minghui.org, a website dedicated to the documentation of persecution of Falun Gong adherents by the Chinese regime.
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice rose to popularity in China in the early 1990s, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people practising in the country at the time. Fearing Falun Gong’s growing popularity as a threat to communist rule, former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin ordered the persecution and “eradication” of the spiritual practice in July 1999. The CCP’s ongoing persecution persists, with reports of torture, forced labour, physical and sexual abuse, and even live organ harvesting.
According to whistleblowers, in a secret meeting current CCP leader Xi Jinping recently ordered
intensified efforts against practitioners overseas, including using lawfare and disinformation campaigns to attack Falun Gong internationally.
US Sanctions
The U.S. government had previously sanctioned several of the eight individuals named in Ottawa’s latest announcement.
In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department
sanctioned Wu for enforcing the CCP’s “stability policies” aimed at exerting control over Tibetan minorities. These policies involved extrajudicial killings, mass detention, physical abuse, and forced sterilizations and abortions.
Zhang, the former director of the Tibetan Public Security Bureau, was also sanctioned at the same time for his role in running detention centres in Tibet that enforced the policies.
Huo, the former Party Secretary of the Xinjing Public Security Bureau, was sanctioned in 2020. He was involved in the CCP’s surveillance and mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in the province, according to the
U.S. Treasury Department.
Peng, who served as commander of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps—a state-enterprise and paramilitary organization involved in the use of forced labour—was also
sanctioned. Chen Quanguo, former Communist Party Secretary of the Xinjiang region, was also sanctioned.
Joly, who
travelled to China in July, said she raised human rights concerns with her Chinese counterpart at the time.
