Dear Editor,
Re: “Troubling views about China,” Letters, Richmond-News.com, July 29.
In his letter, the leader of the Liberals’ independent Senate group, Yuen Pao Woo, criticized the motion passed in the House of Commons which recognized “that a genocide is currently being carried out by the People's Republic of China against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.”
Senator Woo claims MPs who voted were uninformed and argues that Canada has no right to criticize China.
I find these claims to be factually incorrect and incredibly troubling. As Members of Parliament, we represent the will of the Canadian people.
The last thing we need is a Canadian official telling MPs that we should be silent on issues of grave concern.
I’m writing this letter to set the record straight and defend the votes in Canada’s Parliament made to stand up for global human rights.
I would like to challenge the Senator’s insinuation that the passage of the motion was a display of political showmanship rather than democracy at work.
Since 2018, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, of which I am currently Vice-Chair, heard shocking testimony from witnesses and experts detailing severe human rights violations including concentration camps, slave labour, and forced sterilization.
Based on studies and reports submitted to Parliament, the House of Commons voted 266-0 in February 2021 to declare the atrocities in Xinjiang as constituting genocide as defined by the UN.
To suggest this motion was voted on without adequate time to contemplate its contents or implications is disrespectful to our democratic institutions and simultaneously dismisses the will of the Canadian people.
The Senator claims that because “China does not share our view of individual freedoms” we have no right to “lecture the Chinese on how they should govern themselves.”
As evidence, he offers that Chinese citizens would be appalled to learn of our laws concerning medically assisted dying.
Conflating this health policy with a state sponsored campaign to annihilate an entire race is frankly reprehensible.
He claims that China’s dictatorship is equally legitimate to Canadian democracy because polls show Chinese are satisfied with their unelected leaders.
I shouldn’t need to explain to someone as educated as Senator Woo that a country that crushes protestors with tanks and censors every aspect of society cannot be deemed as more legitimate through a public opinion poll.
Lastly, the Senator draws comparisons between Canada’s past injustices and the ongoing genocide in Xinjiang, a strategy frequently employed by Chinese Communist Party officials to deflect criticism and silence debate.
Canadians are well aware of the many injustices and horrific events in our history, but they also recognize that today’s Canada and China are in no way similar in how they treat ethnic minority groups and human rights.
As a representative of the Canadian Senate, Mr. Woo should know better than to conflate egregious human rights violations with policies promoting individual liberties.
He should also refrain from using Beijing talking points in his attacks on the Canadian House of Commons.
In this country, we stand up for justice and against tyranny. We do not make excuses to stay silent.
Kenny Chiu
Member of Parliament
Steveston-Richmond East
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