Madam Speaker, China is trying to silence the truth abroad after having silenced it at home.
Several months ago, I woke up to the news that China's government had sanctioned me, adding me to a list of officials in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom who have been sanctioned simply for speaking against Beijing's genocide of its Uighur Muslim minority and speaking against the crackdown in Hong Kong. The sanctions ban me and others who have been sanctioned from visiting China and prohibit Chinese citizens and institutions from doing business with me. Having no plans to travel to China and having no business ties there, they will have no effect on me.
Nevertheless, they should be taken seriously as an attempt to silence the growing criticism of the Chinese government's human rights record and its violations of international law. Since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the Chinese government has become increasingly assertive in shutting down criticism. Increasing threats have accompanied this increasing assertiveness.
China's actions are a threat to Canada.
Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have now been detained for over two years. Robert Schellenberg has been put on death row. The fate and whereabouts of Hussein Jalil are unknown. The Chinese government has arbitrarily banned the imports of products that target Canadian farmers. Canada is not the only target of China's regime. From its growing intimidation of Taiwan to its recent border skirmishes with India and the unilateral extension of its boundaries into the South China Sea, the Chinese Communist Party is increasingly threatening its neighbours.
It is not only abroad where the Chinese government is challenging the rules-based international order. In its crackdown on Hong Kong, it is violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, which guaranteed Hong Kong's autonomy for 50 years from 1997. In its mass detention and sterilization of the Uighur Muslim minorities, it is violating the 1948 genocide convention, the very first international human rights treaty adopted at the United Nations. The abuse of other minorities continues with its treatment of Tibetans, practitioners of Falun Gong and Christians.
We must wake up to the reality in liberal democracies that in recent years, instead of improving their record on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, authoritarian governments have used their new-found prosperity to reinforce that authoritarianism. Here in Canada, CSIS has warned that state-sponsored espionage, through 5G technologies and biotechnology, threatens our national security and intellectual property regime. The government should advise Canadian universities against partnerships with Huawei, and it should issue a directive to the federal granting councils banning such partnerships. It is time that Canada joins our four Five Eyes allies in banning Huawei from participating in our 5G telecommunications network.
In 2016, the government joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. So far, it has contributed $50 million of public money to that bank and is asking for another $49 million to contribute to that bank through the estimates. It is part of China's strategy to export its model of authoritarian governance throughout the Indo-Pacific region. It is why President Obama and vice-president Biden at the time, in 2016, asked the Canadian government not to join. Canada should suspend payments to the bank and withdraw.
The Chinese government is intimidating Canadians here at home, particularly those in the Chinese community. Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and students on university campuses across the nation have been subject to threats. A robust plan is needed from the government to counter these intimidation operations, increase enforcement and make it clear to China's diplomats accredited here in Canada, some several hundred of them, that any role in these intimidation operations here on Canadian soil is grounds to be declared persona non grata and expelled from this country.
In China, there is evidence that Uighurs in Xinjiang province are being forced to pick cotton and produce tomatoes through a coercive state-run system. The government needs to introduce new, effective measures to ban the importation of products from China that have been produced using forced labour.
These gross violations of human rights and international law, the treatment of the Uighur people and the treatment of the people of Hong Kong cannot go unanswered. If we do not work with our democratic allies to counter these violations, we will allow the Chinese Communist Party to export its model of authoritarianism and undermine the rules-based international order that has provided relative peace and security since 1945.
The sanctions imposed on me and others have brought us together. They have backfired. I have met with elected parliamentarians who have been sanctioned in the United Kingdom, the European Union and members of national parliaments throughout Europe. The sanctions have brought us together and have brought us together in action.
We are working more closely together now because of these sanctions to counter China's threats to Liberal democracies. For example, recently a European Parliament delegation meeting chaired by a member of the European Parliament, Mr. Reinhard Bütikofer, invited me and a dozen and a half members of the European Parliament, as well as members of national parliaments in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania and here in Canada, to talk about countering China's threats. We had a productive meeting, albeit at four o'clock in the morning, since it was on European time. Nevertheless, with copious amounts of coffee, we had a productive meeting and endeavoured to work together.
Out of these discussions has come action. On May 20, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a motion freezing ratification of the European Union-China comprehensive agreement on investment, a treaty concluded on December 30 of last year and a treaty that is a signature effort of President Xi Jinping of China.
Just several weeks ago, Australia cancelled two belt and road initiatives of China because of China's threats to Australia. That is the kind of action this House and the government should be taking in response to these sanctions and to the threats China is posing to our citizens, our economy and our values.
The sanctions imposed on me and others are a clumsy effort by the People's Republic of China to silence the free speech and open debate at the heart of Liberal democracies. They will work if we are silent. We cannot be silent. We cannot lose the hard-won and hard-fought-for ideals that underpin our democracies: a belief in liberty and freedom, a belief in human rights, a belief in democratic institutions and a belief in the rule of law. For if we are silent, we will let these hard-won and cherished beliefs be lost to a new ascendant model of authoritarianism, repression and fear.