I had a chance to watch Mr. Chris DeRiggs' play, Julien Fedón, at the Grenada Trade Center a few weeks ago. The actors' performances were emotional, and watching the drama evolve was so enjoyable that I couldn't stop myself from researching the history, particularly the fights against colonists and invaders. Apart from Julien Fedón, I was inspired by the legend of tens of indigenous people (Kalinago inhabitants) who refused to submit to colonial oppression and jumped to their deaths over a precipice in the island's north. Their sacrifice is still remembered by Grenadians today. I also visited the place where they fell called Leapers Hill. 

The feeling I had from reading these stories, although vicarious, is still genuinely shocking. China, being a developing country with an ancient civilization (like Indigenous Americans), was also a victim of western colonialism from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, suffering humiliation and enslavement at the hands of plunderers with more powerful forces.  However, after the Chinese people liberated themselves through hardship and struggle, and chose to uphold the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in China’s diplomacy, which means it would never seek hegemony and impose the same kind of oppression on other nations however much the country develops, some western countries, with blood dripping from hands, never truly reflect on the crimes they committed in the past and leave no stone unturned to blemish China, trying to portrait it as some kind of “human rights aggressor”. What a farce!! Let us take a look at how the North American Indians were treated in the most vociferous China-accusing country and expose this hypocrisy.

According to historical records and media reports, Indians have been systematically deprived of their right to life as well as basic political, economic, and cultural rights since the founding of the country, through killings, displacements, and forced assimilation, in an effort to physically and culturally eradicate this group. Bloody massacres, Westward expansion, forced migration, forced assimilation, and cultural extinction are all government-led activities based on a strong belief in white superiority and dominance.

Statistics reveal that since its independence in 1776, the country has launched over 1,500 attacks on Indian tribes, slaughtering the Indians, taking their lands, and committing countless crimes. In 1814, the government decreed that it would award 50 to 100 dollars for each Indian skull surrendered. After the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830, some 100,000 Indians were driven to the west of the Mississippi River from their ancestral lands in the south and forced by the government to live in “Native American reservations” by expelling, cheating and coercion. The migration began in the summer heat and continued through the winter with sub-zero temperatures. Thousands died along the way as a result of hunger, cold, exhaustion, or disease and plague. In the 1870s and ’80s, the government adopted an aggressive policy of “forced assimilation” to obliterate the social fabric and culture of Indian tribes. The core objective of the strategy was to destroy the original group affiliation as well as the ethnic and tribal identity of the Indians, and transform them into “citizens” with “civic consciousness” and identification with “mainstream values”, some of the most notorious deeds were forcing Indian children to attend boarding schools and “forced foster care”--Indian children suffered immensely at school, and some died from starvation, disease and abuse.

The government-led actions have led to a precipitous drop in the population of Indian communities, deterioration of their living conditions, lack of social security, low economic status, threats to their safety, and plummeted political influence. Even today, Indians still face a serious existential crisis. The Indians’ population in this country nosedived from 5 million at the end of the 15th century to 250,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, with more than 10 tribes pushed towards extinction. Among all ethnic groups in the country, Indians have the shortest life expectancy, the highest poverty rate, the highest rate of alcohol abuse and the lowest community doctor-patient ratio. Not long ago, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on minority issues pointed out that “indigenous peoples’ experiences have for centuries been one of dispossession, brutality and even in some cases genocide”.

The treatments Indians received in this country fully match the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, cover all the acts that define genocide and indisputably constitute genocide. Although the government passed a resolution apologizing to indigenous people, the reflection looks more like a “political stunt.” It has not officially admitted that the atrocities against Native Americans are acts of genocide. Real change appears to be a long way off. Furthermore, if oral apologies are sufficient, why are many former colonial countries' Reparations Institutes still battling for their cause?

The most critical issue facing that country is facing up to and examining its serious human rights issues, as well as taking concrete steps to address them. Unfortunately, while professing to be a role model for human rights, it has been using double standards and instrumentalizing human rights to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries and defend hegemony. It refuses to give up arrogance and prejudice, continues point fingers at others and makes irresponsible remarks, especially on China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Over the past 60-plus years, the population in Xinjiang increased fourfold and the Uyghur population grew from 2.2 million to about 12 million, a massive contrast to that of the Indians. This simple fact is blatantly and intentionally overlooked by that country, and it purports that a “genocide” is going on in Xinjiang! The false accusation is a paradox, a logical fallacy, and the century's biggest deception. In fact, the charges levelled against China in Xinjiang, such as "parent-child separation," "cultural genocide," "religious persecution," and "mandatory sterilizations," are exactly what this country has done to Indians in the past, and it simply assumes that China has done the same based on its own "experience." All Xinjiang-related propaganda aims to destabilize China's ethnic unity and hobble China’s development. In fact, I myself come from a minority ethnic group called “Zhuang” in Southern China, and we do have some other ethnic minorities in the Embassy—We don’t see any “genocide” nor suffer from discrimination from our compatriots.

People often say that those live in glass houses should not throw stones at each other, but those countries, who dwell in a glass house, are relentlessly throwing stones at China, which stands outside that house, and their actions are bound to boomerang. We can all agree that no system is flawless, but only countries that can face difficulties head on and learn from losses are entitled to advance. Allow history to be a treasury, not simply a story. 

（The author is the Chinese Ambassador to Grenada, H.E. Wei Hongtian）