Wellington, New Zealand — New Zealand shied away from labelling China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority genocide on Wednesday, once again leaving Wellington out of step with its more forthright Western allies.
Parliament unanimously passed a motion expressing “grave concern” at human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, but only after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s ruling Labour Party insisted any reference to genocide was scrubbed out.
Lawmaker Brooke van Velden said that, while allies such as the United States, Britain and Canada had called what was taking place genocide, it was “intolerable” that New Zealand refused to use the term to avoid upsetting its largest tr…
Keep on reading: New Zealand declines to call China’s Uighur treatment genocide