New Zealand rejects Uyghur ‘genocide’ label
Government watering down criticism of China’s human rights record to save trade, says opposition
NEW ZEALAND’S prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was accused of softpedalling on human rights in China after her ruling Labour Party removed the word “genocide” from a motion condemning Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur minority.
The country’s 120-seat parliament yesterday unanimously passed the motion expressing “grave concern” at human rights abuses in the province of Xinjiang after a debate on China’s actions there.
The statement also called on the New Zealand government “to work with all relevant instruments of international law to bring these abuses to an end”.
But ruling party MPS voted to remove references to “genocide” after the government said it would only recognise such a designation if made by an international court.
“We have not formally designated the situation as constituting a genocide – this is not due to a lack of concern,” Nanaia Mahuta, the foreign minister, said in a speech in parliament.
“Genocide is the gravest of international crimes and a formal legal deter- mination should only be made following a rigorous assessment on the basis of international law.”
She said New Zealand would continue to call “in the strongest terms” for China to uphold its human rights obligations.
Brooke van Velden, an MP from the opposition ACT party which put forward the original draft, described the decision to delete references to genocide as “intolerable”.
“The world is looking to us now to see what standard we are going to set – can the Chinese Communist Party play us off as the weakest link in the Western alliance?” she said.
“We may face the threat of loss if we
speak our mind, but we face a much greater danger if we don’t.”
The ACT motion was backed by the Green Party, which called it “morally indefensible and a breach of New Zealand’s legal obligations” to soften language in order to protect trade interests.
At least one million Uyghurs and Kazakhs in Xinjiang have been interned in camps that the Chinese government describes as counter-extremism education centres. Human rights groups and media investigations have uncovered evidence of torture, forced labour, sexual abuse and the forced sterilisation of women at the camps.
The Chinese government strongly denies such allegations.
It is not the first time Mrs Ardern’s government has faced accusations of watering down criticism of China’s human rights record in order to protect its trade relationship.
Last month Mrs Mahuta said in a speech to the New Zealand China Council that the government was “uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship” and would prefer to look for “multilateral opportunities to express our interest on a number of issues”.
Critics said New Zealand was jeopardising the Five Eyes intelligencesharing alliance between itself, Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States out of fear of losing its most important trading partner.
The UK, Canada and the US have all passed motions classifying Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide.
Australia’s parliament voted against a motion calling for recognition of genocide last month.
Mrs Ardern appeared to harden her stance on China on Monday, saying in a speech that differences of values were “becoming harder to reconcile” as Chinese influence grew.