OTTAWA — Canada imposed sanctions on eight former and current senior Chinese officials on Tuesday (Dec 10), citing alleged state-led human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, Tibet and against Falun Gong followers.

“Canada is deeply concerned over reports that China has arbitrarily detained more than one million people in Xinjiang since 2017, many of whom were held in camps and faced psychological, physical and sexual violence,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A 2022 report by the then UN human rights chief said China’s treatment of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang, in the country’s far west, could constitute crimes against humanity. Beijing denies the allegations.

Canada’s targets include Chen Quanguo, former Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region, and Wu Yingjie, Communist Party head in Tibet between 2016 and 2021.

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The action imposes an asset freeze on the targeted officials by prohibiting Canadians from engaging in property-related activity or providing financial services.

“We call on the Chinese government to put an end to this systematic campaign of repression and uphold its international human rights obligations,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in the statement.

China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned the move, saying that it “grossly” interfered in China’s internal affairs.

“Canada’s own human rights record is full of problems… it has wantonly smeared and slandered other countries and spread lies about the so-called human rights issue in China,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press briefing.

“This is a typical example of a thief crying ‘stop thief’ and making a counter-charge.”

China urges Canada to stop interfering in its internal affairs and damaging its interests and image under the pretext of human rights, Mao said, adding that the country will take necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.

The sanctions come months after Joly visited Beijing and met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Beijing says he spoke to her about normalising relations.

Canada-China ties turned icy in 2018 after Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, was detained in Canada and China subsequently arrested two Canadians in China. All three were later released, but Ottawa’s allegations of Chinese political interference in Canada have kept relations strained.

Canada’s ambassador to Beijing visited Xinjiang earlier this year and expressed concerns about human rights violations directly to local leaders.

The United States, UK and the European Union have also imposed sanctions over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.

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