The Chinese government, which has put over a million of its own citizens in internment camps, has claimed that Australia is a major human rights abuser.
Speaking at the United Nations human rights session, a Chinese representative used abrasive language to describe how Australia treats minorities and immigrants.
“First, take action to combat racialism, hate speech, and violence, and protect the rights of ethnic minorities,” he said.
“Stop using false information to make baseless against other countries for political purposes.”
The statements came during a UN session where 31 countries, including Canada, ganged up to criticize Australia’s age of criminal responsibility laws.
Despite criticizing Australia’s treatment of minorities, China has been operating the largest mass-internment of minorities since World War 2.
Approximately 1 million Chinese Uighurs have been forced to live in around 400 internment camps. Many prisoners are forced to work for state companies, with around 570,000 people being forced to pick cotton annually.
Other religious minorities also face serious discrimination. Chinese Christians routinely wind up in prison while Fulan Gong practitioners have been the victims of forced organ harvesting.
In 2016, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi interrupted Canadian Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion in order that he could lecture a journalist on why China’s human rights record should not be questioned.
Like Canada, Australia has faced China’s wrath over the past year. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has taken a strong stance against Huawei and attempted to hold China accountable for the coronavirus.
Throughout 2020, China boycotted and restricted many Australian products, while Australia deported multiple Chinese journalists for alleged interference in Australian politics.
