Conservative MP Michael Chong appears as a witness at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa in September, 2024.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
A Canadian MP who was hit by Chinese sanctions four years ago is urging Mark Carney to get the measure lifted as part of the Prime Minister’s rekindling of relations with Beijing.
Conservative MP Michael Chong pointed out that an entire Commons subcommittee was also hit with Chinese sanctions after it accused China of committing “genocide” against Muslim groups in its Xinjiang region.
The Chinese sanctions in 2021 were applied after Canada joined with the U.S., Britain and the European Union in imposing human-rights-related sanctions against senior officials in Xinjiang.
Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim groups in the region have been the target of Chinese government campaigns that have included mass incarceration and “labour-transfer” policies to move large numbers of people from rural areas into factories in other parts of China.
Mr. Chong on Thursday noted that China this week lifted sanctions on MPs in the British Parliament and last year Beijing removed sanctions on members of the European parliament as well as a subcommittee of the European parliament.
“In the case of the European Union, the lifting of sanctions was a precondition demanded by the European Union to begin talks with the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Chong said in a news release.
Mr. Carney last month announced a new strategic partnership with Beijing at the conclusion of his first visit to China. It brought about a truce in a painful trade war between Ottawa and Beijing as the Prime Minister seeks bigger overseas export markets and new foreign investment to offset the economic damage caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs.
During the four-day visit, Mr. Carney praised China as a more-predictable trading partner than the U.S.
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Mr. Chong said he expects the Prime Minister to be able to obtain sanctions relief for him and the Commons subcommittee as Britain and the European Union have for their parliamentarians.
“If this outcome does not come to pass, it would be a demonstration of the Carney government’s inability to stand up for Canada’s national interest as the British and European governments have,” he said.
He noted that Mr. Carney spoke of parliamentary exchanges with China during his visit. “These exchanges cannot take place unless there is reciprocity between Canada and the [People’s Republic of China]. That means there cannot be any sanctions on Canadian members of Parliament or on Canadian parliamentary committees if any parliamentary exchanges are to take place,” Mr. Chong said.
Speaking at the Commons foreign affairs committee Thursday, Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe said his party supports Mr. Chong’s statement, noting he was part of the subcommittee that also came under sanction.
Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault also expressed support for Mr. Chong at the same committee.
The 2021 sanctions prohibit those targeted from entering the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, and “Chinese citizens and institutions are prohibited from doing business with the relevant individuals and having exchanges with the relevant entity,” the Chinese government said at the time.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a question on whether the Chinese sanctions on Mr. Chong and the parliamentary subcommittee are to be lifted.
The Chinese embassy also did not immediately respond when asked.
In 2020, the Commons subcommittee on international human rights, unanimously declared that China’s policies in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.
“Nearly two million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are being detained, including men, women, and children as young as 13 years old,” the subcommittee said in a statement. “Witnesses noted that this is the largest mass detention of a minority community since the Holocaust.”
Mr. Chong appeared on China’s radar in 2021 when he co-sponsored a motion in the Commons that condemned China for its treatment of the Uyghurs. China has repeatedly rejected Western criticism of its conduct toward ethnic minorities inside its borders.
The MP said Mr. Carney should not relax Canada’s sanctions against China over Xinjiang.
“If sanctions on me and on the subcommittee of the standing committee on foreign affairs and international development are lifted, I expect the Government of Canada to ensure that sanctions placed on Chinese government officials and entities responsible for the genocide against the Uyghur people nonetheless remain in place.