China has a horrible track record on human rights. To make matters worse, Beijing threatens anyone who questions their treatment of Chinese citizens, whether it be the Uyghurs, Christians, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, or any other persecuted community. With the Huawei CFO arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada, China is now talking about the “breach of human rights.”
Huawei CFO arrest and human rights
Meng was arrested in early December at the Vancouver Airport because she had a warrant against her issued by a New York court. As Canada and the U.S. have an extradition treaty, the Canadian officials are obliged to detain criminals as requested by the United States.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
Receive selected content straight into your inbox.
Huawei’s CFO was under investigation for her role in enabling the company to violate trade sanctions against Iran. And to everyone’s surprise, China, a country that gives absolutely no heed to the rights of its own citizens, started talking about respecting human rights.
“The detention without giving any reason violates a person’s human rights… We have made solemn representations to Canada and the U.S., demanding that both parties immediately clarify the reasons for the detention, and immediately release the detainee to protect the person’s legal rights,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement (BBC).
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) went on a propaganda drive in its official People’s Daily newspaper, painting the Huawei CFO as a victim of “Western powers” and how Chinese citizens are being targeted by “shameful” governments in the West.
“The Canadian side must think clearly. Between justice and shamelessness, there is no grey area. The only way to avoid paying a much heavier price is for the Canadian side to correct this error, immediately desisting from this violation of the legal and reasonable rights of the Chinese citizen, giving the Chinese people the explanation they deserve,” the editorial stated (Hong Kong Free Press).
The hypocrisy of the Chinese Communist Party
The statements just go on to show the fraudulent nature of the CCP. The Chinese government has, on many occasions, arrested foreign nationals without giving any prior warning to their homeland governments. The regime’s “exit ban” policy is an excellent example of this. The policy allows Chinese law enforcement agencies to detain any foreign national in China, barring them from going back to their country.
Recently, two U.S. citizens, Victor Liu (19 years) and Cynthia Liu (27 years) were arrested by Beijing under the exit ban policy. Their crime? They are the children of a certain individual who is wanted by the Chinese government on charges of corruption. The fact that CCP believes it has the right to arrest children of criminals for the crimes of their parents is a reminder or how little value they place on human rights.
According to a report by Freedom House, China scored a paltry 14 out of 100 points in its ranking of countries deemed “free.” In contrast, Canada scored a spectacular 99 points, thereby becoming an example of freedom of speech and human rights. To think that the CCP has any right to accuse Canada of human rights violations is just laughable.
The arrest of Meng and Beijing’s subsequent statements on human rights point to a simple truth — it sometimes takes force to show a bully the error of their ways.
