Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project: Canada’s China Visit Must Prioritize Human Rights, Not Optics
Ottawa, ON - As Canada’s Prime Minister makes his first official visit to China in nearly a decade, the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project warns that any engagement on trade, energy, agriculture, and international security must be guided by principled human rights priorities, historical awareness, and strategic realism, not ceremonial optics or false optimism.
URAP emphasizes that human rights must be at the centre of Canada’s China strategy. The continued imprisonment of Canadian citizen Hüseyin Celil, detained since 2006 without any information about his whereabouts, exemplifies China’s disregard for international law and consular obligations. Raising Mr. Celil’s case publicly and firmly is non-negotiable and the minimum standard for a government committed to protecting its citizens. Let us also not forget that between 2018 and 2021, China detained Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in what was widely regarded as retaliatory ‘hostage diplomacy’ following Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive. In addition, China has sanctioned URAP’s staff, advisors, and the Canada Tibet Committee under its Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. This highlights the risks faced by Canadian organizations advocating for human rights and underscores the ongoing tensions between Canada and China over human rights.
Moreover, Canada’s absence from the recent U.N. Joint Statement on the Human Rights Situation in China, signed by 15 other countries, which publicly condemned systemic abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and other regions. Canada’s omission raises serious questions about the consistency of its human rights commitment.
“Canada’s China policy cannot be transactional or superficial,” said Mehmet Tohti, Executive Director of URAP. “Over the past decade, Canada has faced arbitrary detentions of its citizens, economic coercion, transnational repression, and systematic human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and beyond. These are not misunderstandings; they are deliberate, ongoing policies. Canada must engage with Beijing from a position of principle, not naivety or wishful thinking.”
China’s transnational repression, intimidation, surveillance, and threats against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hongkongers, and dissidents in Canada constitute a direct attack on Canadian sovereignty and democratic institutions. Any diplomatic visit that sidesteps this reality risks normalizing foreign coercion on Canadian soil. Equally urgent is the ongoing Uyghur genocide, including mass arbitrary detention, state-imposed forced labour in global supply chains, systematic family separation, imprisonment of community leaders, and the erasure of language, religion, and culture.
Canadian law also bans the import of goods produced wholly or in part with forced labour. Extensive and consistent evidence shows that the Chinese state subjects Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities to forced labour across key sectors, including cotton, automotive, solar, and critical mineral supply chains. As a G7 member state, Canada should highlight China’s state-imposed forced labour practices and the import of goods produced under coercion into Canada, thereby reinforcing supply chain responsibility and resilience and holding Beijing accountable for complicity in these abuses.
These atrocities can’t be treated as side issues. Human rights violations must be central to all diplomatic engagement with China; otherwise, Canada risks complicity through silence. URAP calls on the Canadian government to anchor its China policy in five non-negotiable principles:
Clarity and consistency in public language on human rights violations.
Protection of Canadians, including citizens detained or subject to refoulement and at-risk citizens.
Accountability for transnational repression and foreign interference.
Meaningful human rights advocacy, linking dialogue and cooperation to verifiable outcomes.
Coordination with democratic allies to uphold international law and collective leverage.
Canada does not need confrontation, but it cannot prioritize optics over principle. The true measure of this visit will not be the ceremonial handshakes or media photos; it will be whether Canada upholds its values, defends human rights, and protects its citizens in the face of an authoritarian state.
Media Contact
Mehmet Tohti
Executive Director
Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
secure@urap.ca
(613)261-8512