AN OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU

November 23, 2022

 Justin Trudeau, MP

Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Prime Minister,

Following your recent encounter with China’s leader, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, at the G20 in Bali, I wanted to write to you firstly to thank you for standing up for and defending the values of media freedom and freedom of expression which Canada, along with the world’s other democracies, hold dear. As these values come under increasing threat from the regime in Beijing, in Canada, and the rest of the world, it is vital that we all stand up to authoritarian regimes which seek to undermine our democracies.

Last month we saw the ruthless character of China’s leader Xi Jinping and the system surrounding him in the extraordinary removal of China’s former President Hu Jintao in dramatic scenes at the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress in Beijing. But we have seen it too in recent years the dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms, the genocide of the Uyghurs, the continued atrocities in Tibet, the persecution of Christians and Falun Gong practitioners, forced organ harvesting, the crackdown on all forms of dissent, civil society, independent media and lawyers defending human rights across China, and the increasing threats to Taiwan. And we see it in the insidious influence of the Chinese Communist Party in our universities – especially with the role of the Confucius Institutes – and the harassment of critics of the regime in Beijing well beyond China’s borders. I myself, along with many colleagues and friends, have been subjected to this first-hand, both in my own country of the United Kingdom and in past travels to Canada. 

This week in Ottawa, I am launching a new book which details all these and other crimes by the Chinese regime. The launch of my book will be hosted by Sameer Zuberi MP and Garnett Genuis MP on 23 November, and we will also hold a press conference on 24 November with Senator Leo Housakos. At both events, we will be joined by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair, Nury Turkel, a courageous Uyghur lawyer and activist from East Turkistan, otherwise known as Xinjiang region in China. We will have further events in Montreal and Toronto. I would be delighted to extend an invitation to you to attend these book launches, but of course, I know you will have other important issues to attend to. But I hope you will read this book and, much more importantly, reflect seriously on its issues.                                                           

As you continue your term as Prime Minister, I urge you to do eight things: 

·         Conduct a cross-departmental, comprehensive review of Canada’s China policy, and ensure that Canada stands up to any initiatives by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate, influence or intimidate key sectors and policy-making processes – an issue which I know has been widely reported in Canada in recent weeks; 

·         Introduce a total, complete and wholesale ban on the import of any products made by forced labour in China and a new process to diversify our supply chains;

 ·         Impose targeted sanctions on those responsible for dismantling and destroying Hong Kong’s promised freedoms, the rule of law and autonomy, for they must not be allowed to get away with what they have done with impunity, with no consequences; 

·         Recognize the atrocities perpetrated against the Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity;

 ·         Take action to stop Canadian pension funds from investing in Chinese companies complicit with genocide, crimes against humanity, atrocity crimes and the surveillance state in China;

·         Shut down completely all secret Chinese police stations existing in Canada; 

·         Provide a clear indication that you would be willing to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama and that you will stand by Taiwan. 

·         Work with other leaders of the democratic world to coordinate a response to the threat that the Chinese Communist Party regime poses, which includes sanctions, a robust defence of our freedoms and the promotion of human rights for the peoples of China and beyond. 

I hope that amongst the wide range of reading material in your inbox in the coming weeks, my book – The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny – might find its way to you and that you will take these profoundly serious issues into account as you develop the Canadian government’s response to the many challenges we all face across the world today. 

I wish you every success, for Canada, for the free world and in defence of human rights, human dignity, human freedom and the international rules-based order. 

Yours sincerely,

Benedict Rogers