China blasts Canberra for hypocrisy over Magnitsky laws

Beijing’s mouthpiece has launched its latest assault on Canberra, this time over laws that could see Chinese human rights abusers banned from entry.

Chinese state media has launched its latest attack on human rights in Australia, comparing the nation’s immigration centres to concentration camps.

It comes as a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry is set to recommend Australia adopt laws to mimic the US Magnitsky Act, giving the federal government the power to ban human rights abusers from entering or investing in the country.

The laws are designed to target individual offenders, rather than sanction countries as a whole, and apply even when they do not face prosecution in their own country.

Federal parliament’s human rights subcommittee referenced the government’s failure to hold Chinese nationals to account when it released its report on Monday.

New Magnitsky-style laws could be introduced in Australia in a move that has angered Beijing.

The move placed pressure on the federal government to bar Chinese individuals involved in human rights abuses from entering Australia.

That could include anyone involved in China’s abuses of its Uyghur minority, or cracking down on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

But Beijing mouthpiece the Global Times lashed out at Australia in an editorial on Monday night, accusing Canberra for blindly following Washington’s agenda.

The article, titled ‘Is Australia qualified to judge who violates human rights?’ also urged Australia to “clean up its own country before accusing others”.

Chinese officials involved in abusing the Uyghur minority could be barred from entering Australia under new laws. Picture: ABC

“Shall we remind Australia that its immigration detention facilities has been condemned on human rights grounds and have even been compared to concentration camps?” it read.

“It is ludicrous for Canberra to care more about Beijing rather than its own affairs. It is raising the human rights banner on a pile of innocent Afghan civilians’ corpses.”

It is the latest in a wave of Global Times editorials criticising Australia since a Chinese foreign ministry official posted a graphic, doctored image of an Australian soldier holding a knife to an Afghan child’s throat.

The post was reference to the Afghan war crimes report, which found evidence of 39 murders of Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian troops, and has since become the focus of an ongoing brawl between China and Australia.

The prime minister labelled the post “repugnant” and demanded its removal. But Beijing has refused to apologise, insisting Australia apologise for loss of life in Afghanistan.

Chinese troops cracked down on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Picture: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP

Also on Monday, Beijing announced imports from another Australian meat supplier would be suspended. The move is the latest salvo in China’s ongoing trade assault on Australia.

Since May, Australian seafood, beef and coal industries have been delays at Chinese customs.

Beijing has also hit Australian wine imports with tariffs of up to 212 per cent.

The stoush was seemingly prompted by Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, which first broke out in Wuhan.

China has recently suggested the virus arrived on its shores via frozen meat, including Australian beef.