The Communist Party of Canada condemns the Tory motion passed by Parliament on Febuary 22nd, declaring the Uyghur people of China as the victims of genocide. This charge has no basis in fact, and is a creation of the Trump administration – and now the Biden administration – in the US Cold War campaign to undermine China’s growing economic and political influence globally.
Unlike the US, which responds to acts of terrorism with illegal wars and invasions, water-boarding and other tortures, the Chinese government has responded to acts of terrorism and terrorist recruiting by the extremist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (akin to ISIS) which aims to establish a Caliphate in Xinjiang, with pre-emptive secular education programs, job creation and vocational training, and other action to stop it, and prevent its spread.
The truth about the Uyghurs flies in the face of disinformation campaign orchestrated by right-wing populists and more sinister forces in the US and Canada. The Uyghur population has grown by 25% during the last ten years, as a result of the 3 child policy in effect for national minorities in China, including the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Kazaks, Hui and other national minorities. Uyghur women and their families have been encouraged to have children, not prevented or sterilized without their consent. Uyghurs are not prevented from speaking their language, and the Uyghur Autonomous Region has received state support from the central government for developing the Uyghur language and culture. Uyghur Muslims are free to practice their religion, and the proliferation of over 25,000 mosques in Xinjiang is proof that this is the case.
Xinjiang’s per capita GDP (purchasing power) is $8,300 annually, well above its neighbours in India at $6,700, in Pakistan at $5,860, or Bangladesh at $4,700. In every category – food intake, housing, health care, longevity, infant and maternal mortality rates, literacy, education, women’s freedoms, infrastructure, transportation, science and technology, availability of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities China, and Xinjiang, are far ahead of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Living standards and wages are rising in China and in Xinjiang, unlike in Canada where real wages and living standards have stagnated and declined over 40 years, while unemployment and precarious work have sky-rocketed. This is the unpleasant reality that China’s critics, including Canada’s Parliamentarians choose to ignore.
The charge of genocide in Xinjiang doesn’t hold up to any serious examination of the facts, though it precisely describes the policy and actions of successive Canadian governments towards Indigenous Peoples in this country, a fact that the Conservatives refuse to recognize along with Islamophobia.
Most Canadians have never visited Xinjiang and have no first-hand knowledge of the reality of life for Uyghur people. They are reliant on factual news and information. In the era of Trump and the rise of mass campaigns of disinformation and lies, it is easy for right-wing populists like Tory leader Erin O’Toole and other darker forces, to create “news” and “create a crisis” in order to advance their own political interests. What is shocking is the ease with which the NDP and the Greens succumbed to the “Big Lie”, only later offering that Canada could send a delegation to Xinjiang to ‘get some facts’. Some facts would have been useful before the vote and the false declaration of genocide against China.
The Liberal Cabinet’s faux abstention, fools no-one, least of all the Biden administration in the US which is demanding Canada fall in line with US foreign policy on China, on Russia, on Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and Latin America, on Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, and on NATO where Biden insists Canada must increase spending by 2% of GDP, and on NORAD where Canada must ante up to “modernize” a system that is designed to launch a nuclear first-strike without fear of retaliation.
The actions of the CLC to repeat this Big Lie, without any facts, shows how far the Liberal Party has penetrated the leadership of the organized labour movement in Canada.
The Bloc’s support on this and other Tory motions, shows there is not much difference between the BQ and the Tories on many important international issues. Shamefully, the same can be said of the Liberals, NDP and Greens.
With this vote, Parliament has abandoned any remaining shreds of an independent Canadian foreign policy. It is a message to the world that Canada is in lock-step with the US foreign policy, including US regime change operations, illegal hot and cold wars, and in mass disinformation campaigns like the Gulf of Tonkin “incident” that never happened but launched the US war on Vietnam, “the incubator babies” and “weapons of mass destruction” that didn’t exist but launched the US war in Iraq, the “chorine gas attacks” that never occurred but launched new US bombing raids on Syria, and now “genocide” in China. And these are just some of the fabrications generated by the US in its drive to war and regime change around the world. The danger of a new world war has just increased substantially.
In the 1930s, fascism in Germany perfected the mass campaigns of lies and disinformation that led to the fascisization of the German people, the genocide of 6 million Jews, Romani, people with disabilities, LGBTQ, and the killing of 20 million in the Soviet Union and 50 million more including 45,000 Canadians in World War II.
In aligning Canada with US imperialism, and far-right and fascist forces around the world, we are on a collision course with a majority of the world’s peoples and states, and with the United Nations and international law.
We call on the progressive and democratic movements, all those who care for truth and for peace, to speak up for truth, for facts, for peace, and demand that the Canadian government and Parliament stop parroting lines from the US Cold War campaign on China, and instead focus on finding political solutions to the problems facing both countries, including the illegal detention and possible extradition of Meng Wanzhou to the US – another legacy of the Trump administration.
CEC