Being sanctioned by China just proves that our advocacy for human rights is having an impact

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston
Special to The Globe and Mail

Last month, I received a wonderful Christmas present from Beijing. I had been unexpectedly sanctioned by Wang Yi, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, for my work on human rights, along with 19 other Canadians. Each of us has spoken out for Uyghurs or Tibetans who have been repressed in China, some for both groups.

Conservative MP Michael Chong was similarly sanctioned by the Chinese regime in March, 2021, for leading Parliament’s unanimous recognition that China’s repression of the Muslim Uyghurs is a genocide. Since then, I had wondered how I could ramp up my advocacy and perhaps have my work, too, be recognized by Beijing for its human-rights impact.

It turns out, you just have to be on the staff or board of an organization supporting certain diasporas that Beijing wants to silence. In the case of my sanctions group, we are all in civil society; it’s an unprecedented sanctioning of regular Canadians by the Chinese regime. The 20 of us include leaders of the Canada-Tibet Committee and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, lawyers who take on human-rights cases, a business executive in technology, leaders in organizational development, an expert on disinformation, former and current professors, and those who were friends of China and now speak out against its human-rights atrocities.

The sanctions mean that we can never go to China – but who wants to go to a country that kidnaps innocent Canadians to hold them hostage? Our financial assets there are frozen, but none of us have any. And we can no longer collaborate with Chinese people living in China – but most Chinese people there are already worried that talking to Westerners could mean trouble.

Why did Mr. Wang name us? On Dec. 9, 2024, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced sanctions against eight high-level Chinese officials implicated in grave human-rights violations. They are responsible for the systemic repression of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners. Some of those who were victimized have ties to Canada. Mr. Wang does not like international attention drawn to this repression.

We applaud the Canadian government’s action. When wielded against totalitarian governments, sanctions are one of the most effective tools to show that crimes against humanity are illegal under international law and unacceptable to Canadians. Retired Chinese official Chen Quanguo was so successful in his repression of the local population as Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region that he was transferred to Xinjiang to implement a genocide on the Uyghur people. Together, the people incarcerated under his watch represent millions of individuals put through modern-day concentration camps, including more than two million Uyghur and Tibetan children currently in residential indoctrination schools, with hundreds of thousands unable to reunite with their parents.

Canada was right to identify and sanction such despicable people and their organizations, and the sanctions levied do have impact. International disgust at such atrocities is a disincentive to do more of them. Further, many Chinese officials have secreted personal finances offshore to Canada where they can be safe from seizure in China. They may have a child studying in a Canadian university with the hopes that the child will become a citizen and bring their parents here. Those sanctioned can’t do that.

Officials at Global Affairs Canada, Public Safety, the RCMP, CSIS and other agencies have been extremely supportive of us. Since our names have been published, they have provided important information on how we can protect our computers, phones and personal security, including in-person briefings. Some of us are having surveillance cameras installed at our homes, or adding to those already there. We are bolstered by the support of our families and friends, and by the millions of Canadians whose views are reflected in poll after poll against the policies of Xi Jinping.

For decades, China’s transnational repression had been focused on silencing their own nationals abroad. Under Mr. Xi, it has been spreading out to Canadians, Americans and Europeans who speak out against Beijing’s policies in our legislatures or in the pages of our newspapers, and in university classrooms or legal meetings. Beijing must be very frightened by our voices, which we have raised against injustice.

Those who advised Mr. Wang to sanction us were on a fool’s errand – the fool being Mr. Xi. We are now infinitely more motivated to do whatever we can to bolster human rights in China, and we have advice ready for the next government for other initiatives. Now that we know we’re having an impact, in concert with counterparts abroad we will be advancing actions against Beijing’s transnational repression of China’s citizens and Westerners like ourselves.