Forceful or lacking Grace? --- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reacts understandably to the Canadian reporter challenging him on China’s human rights record. Was it forceful but entirely lacking in grace?

These types of question generate more heat than enlightening insight into Chinese domestic affairs. If the reporter’s intention was to provoke a response, then she was successful.

It is not the place here to dissect each of the alleged abuses. Conceding they are correct or deflecting their inaccuracy is difficult in such a public forum. A deft response from Wang Yi would be to ask a rhetorical question - how do these abuses compare to the Canadian abuses?

And then proceed to answer: Canada continues to struggle to address longstanding human rights challenges, including wide-ranging abuses against Indigenous peoples, the continued confinement of immigration detainees in jails, and a prison law that does not rule out prolonged solitary confinement.

Source author: John D. Hipsley jhipsley@igc.org