OTTAWA — China lashed out Tuesday against Canada and other western countries saying they have no right to criticize the regime’s human-rights record, considering their own.
The criticism was part of the regime’s response to the sanctions against it this week over alleged human-rights violations against minority Muslims in China.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry used the residential school system in Canada as one historical example of rights violations committed by the countries behind the sanctions.
The system saw Indigenous children removed from their families and placed in a government-run school system designed to assimilate them and where thousands suffered mental, sexual and physical abuse.
Chinese authorities are alleged to have arbitrarily detained more than one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to subject them to political re-education, forced labour and torture, among other abuses.
In a briefing with media in China, the spokesperson said the government has also expressed its displeasure directly with diplomats from the U.S., U.K., European Union and Canada.
Stephanie Levitz/The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press
