Sinn Fein ‘cheerleading’ for oppressive regime: Claire Hanna

Sinn Fein’s Chris Hazzard has faced an online backlash after “cheerleading” for a regime described as committing “egregious human rights abuses” against a minority population.
By Mark Rainey
Published 1st Mar 2021, 13:07 BST
Updated 1st Mar 2021, 15:22 BST
Students assemble in the schoolyard for exercises at a bilingual middle school for ethnic-Uighur Muslim and Han Chinese students in Hotan as part of China's educational policy, which aims to achieve universal education for all students yet at the same time contain regional ethnic resistance against the ruling Communist government. Photo: AFP/Frederick J Brown via Getty ImageStudents assemble in the schoolyard for exercises at a bilingual middle school for ethnic-Uighur Muslim and Han Chinese students in Hotan as part of China's educational policy, which aims to achieve universal education for all students yet at the same time contain regional ethnic resistance against the ruling Communist government. Photo: AFP/Frederick J Brown via Getty Image
Students assemble in the schoolyard for exercises at a bilingual middle school for ethnic-Uighur Muslim and Han Chinese students in Hotan as part of China's educational policy, which aims to achieve universal education for all students yet at the same time contain regional ethnic resistance against the ruling Communist government. Photo: AFP/Frederick J Brown via Getty Image

Hundreds of people, including SDLP MP Claire Hanna, called on the MP for South Down and Sinn Fein to state whether they will show solidarity with the Uyghurs in China

In a weekend Twitter message, Mr Hazzard said: “Great to see President Xi has announced the end of absolute poverty in China this week. China has spent more than ¥1.6trillion in this historic endeavour including 10million new homes & 25million renovated homes. Xi has vowed now to eradicate health inequalities #Solidarity.”

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Dozens of people who responded accused China of using “forced labour” as part of its economic policy to drive down poverty.

In relation to the other alleged human rights abuses, an Amnesty International report states: “So-called ‘re-education camps’ are places of brainwashing, torture and punishment that hark back to the darkest hours of the Mao-era, when anyone suspected of not being loyal enough to the state or the Chinese Communist Party could end up in China’s notorious labour camps.”

“Members of predominately Muslim ethnic minority groups are living in permanent fear for themselves and for their detained relatives.”

Responding directly to Mr Hazzard’s tweet, Claire Hanna said: “Genuine question for @sinnfeinireland leadership, does this solidarity extend to the Uyghurs who are experiencing egregious human rights abuses, including concentration camps and forced sterilisation, at the hands of the government this tweet cheerleads?”

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Patrick Corrigan of AmnestyNI replied to Mr Hazzard’s tweet with the message: “Solidarity with the Uighur and Kazakh Muslims of Xinjiang, a million of whom have been put in mass internment camps for ‘re-education’ at Xi’s direction.”

SDLP MP Claire Hanna. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/PacemakerSDLP MP Claire Hanna. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker
SDLP MP Claire Hanna. Photo: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

A Sinn Fein spokesperson told the News Letter that the party “is opposed to the suppression of any ethnic or religious grouping on the basis of their culture or belief system,” and added: “The campaign against the Uighurs in China is a gross breach of human rights. Sinn Féin has raised our concerns with the Irish government and with the Chinese ambassador.

“Sinn Féin will continue to campaign to highlight the plight of those who face persecution, are subject to coercion in any form and continue to be denied basic human rights.”

Last July, China’s ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, told the BBC there are “no such concentration camps in Xinjiang,” and added: “There’s a lot of fake accusations against China.”

Related topics:China