This is typical, and old news, but so perfectly typical that one has to make note of it (“China’s hypocrisy on full display,” Taipei Times, June 4, 2022):
During a June 2016 news conference in Ottawa with then-Canadian minister of foreign affairs Stephane Dion, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi [shown above] berated a Canadian reporter for asking about human rights in China and its jailing of a Canadian on dubious espionage charges.
“Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance. I don’t know where that comes from,” Wang replied through a translator. “This is totally unacceptable.”
Mystery! Baffling…
What could possibly be the explanation for the reporter’s idea that China routinely and egregiously violates human rights, not excluding the rights of the Canadian that it jailed on dubious espionage charges? Maybe it’s China’s track record, the history of its conduct? Could that be it? As opposed to some neurosis on the part of the questioner?
The Canadian that the questioner was asking about and that China was then holding in jail for espionage was Kevin Garratt. China had detained him and his wife, Julia, in 2014. Julia Garratt was released in 2015, Kevin Garratt in 2016, a few months after this news conference.
A CBC story from 2016 quotes more of what Wang Yi sputtered:
“Other people don’t know better than the Chinese people about the human rights condition in China, and it is the Chinese people who are in the best situation, in the best position to have a say about China’s human rights situation.
“So I would like to suggest to you that please don’t ask questions in such an irresponsible manner. We welcome goodwill suggestions but we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations.”
Uh, dude, you do know about the pervasive censorship in China and about how people in China do not feel at perfect liberty to “have a say about China’s human rights situation,” right? And that when they do say something anyway, they often get thrown in jail for saying something?
Pavlov’s dogs were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell. China’s anti-diplomatic diplomats are trained to snarl and froth and deflect at the sound of an honest question about all the bad things China does.
