Canada sanctioned perpetrators of atrocity. China sanctioned people who talked about it.
In a recent interview, Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di said Canada needs to lift its sanctions on Chinese officials before Beijing will consider removing its measures against Canadians.
“The knot has to be untied by the one who tied it,” he said.
It is a tidy metaphor, and it rests on a fundamentally false premise. The two sets of sanctions are not equivalent.
In December 2024, the Government of Canada imposed sanctions on eight current and former senior Chinese officials for their roles in the gross and systematic repression of Uyghurs, Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners.
Twelve days later, Beijing sanctioned the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, the Canada Tibet Committee and 20 individuals associated with those organizations, including two of the three authors of this commentary.
