Image: Jeremy Bezanger / Unsplash
The French National Assembly voted 169 in favor and just one against for calling China’s treatment of Uyghurs genocide. The National Assembly officially recognizes the violence perpetrated by the People’s Republic of China against the Uyghurs as crimes against humanity and genocide. The resolution will likely strain ties between Paris and Beijing.
The resolution was brought forth by the Socialists. President Emmanuel Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) party also backed it. It calls on the French government to ensure that it will take necessary measures within the international community and in its foreign policy towards China to protect the human rights of the Uyghurs, France 24, reports.
French MPs applauded the Uyghur refugees, who had arrived to observe the parliamentary session.
The resolution follows a similar move in the UK in April last year. The Netherlands and Canadian parliaments have called the Chinese treatment of the Uyghurs genocide in February 2021. The US government also called it genocide under former president Donald Trump.