Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney should make human rights a key focus of his visit to China from January 13 to 17, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Carney’s trip to China is the first by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years. Canada-China relations have been strained in recent years as Chinese President Xi Jinping has intensified repression both inside China and abroad. The Chinese government unlawfully detained two Canadians as hostages between 2018 and 2021 to pressure the Canadian government to free an executive of the Chinese tech giant Huawei.

“Prime Minister Carney should recognize that the Chinese government’s deepening repression threatens not just the rights of people in China but, increasingly, Canada’s core interests and values,” said Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Carney should ensure that engagements with the Chinese government on trade and security are consistent with Canada’s values, which includes the promotion of human rights.”

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Key issues Carney should raise include

• links between the Chinese government’s forced labor and imports to Canada;
• the persecution and imprisonment of human rights defenders; and
• China’s targeting of critics abroad, including in Canada.

Carney should also raise concerns about drones produced by China-based companies being sold to Russia and then used to attack civilians in Ukraine.

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Canadian law prohibits importing products produced wholly or in part by forced labor. There is extensive and consistent documentation of Chinese state-imposed forced labor involving ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities in China’s cotton, automotive, solar, and critical mineral supply chains. There is evidence that some firms linked to forced labor in Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim Uyghur region, ship products to Canada. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations have for several years reported on crimes against humanity by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang.

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