The Dutch parliament on Thursday became the first European legislature to call the Chinese treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority a "genocide."
The vote to pass the motion, which is nonbinding, could encourage other European parliaments to advance similar statements. A genocide label can carry legal ramifications in international bodies, in addition to drawing attention to a situation.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands said China “seriously condemns” the move.
“‘Genocide’ has a clear definition in international law. While the Netherlands is renowned as the capital of international law, some lawmakers have used this serious topic as political capital and maliciously sensationalized the Xinjiang topic ahead of the general election,” said the spokesman.
He asked the lawmakers to stop further moves lest they damage the Netherlands’ relationship with China.
Beijing has continued to insist that the Xinjiang camps where forced labor is reported to take place are in fact "vocational training facilities" and denies abuses.
The vote comes a week after outgoing Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the Dutch government wasn't ready to declare the situation in the northwestern region of Xinjiang a genocide. Instead, he said, the situation was "large-scale human rights violations against Uighurs."
But Dutch MPs wanted the government to go further. MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma from the coalition D66 party initiated the motion that declared the actions a genocide. He called on the government to follow suit.
"The detention camps where it is estimated that more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are locked up are so big that you can see them from space," Sjoerdsma said before the vote, calling the encampment "the largest mass incarceration of ethnic minorities since World War II."
Governments around the world — alongside Uighur campaigners and international experts — allege China has put as many as 1 million Uighur people into detention camps and used their forced labor in the country’s global supply chains. They also accuse China of forced sterilizations, brain-washing and the destruction of mosques.
Now, parliaments are starting to attach the "genocide" label to the situation.
Canada's parliament did so on Monday, passing a non-binding motion. The Canadian parliament also wants the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to be moved if China persists in its behavior. The U.S. State Department, under previous President Donald Trump, has also stated that China is committing genocide.
Lawmakers in France and the U.K. have also been trying to take a stance against the treatment of Uighur people in China.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal party said it does not support the motion.
"It is terrible what is happening to the Uighurs," foreign affairs spokesman Sven Koopmans told local media and said the party supports punitive measures. But he added that the question of labeling the situation a genocide should be carefully determined, not decided "now quickly by Dutch politician through a motion."
Stuart Lau contributed reporting.
This article has been updated after the motion officially passed and with a response from the Chinese embassy in the Netherlands.
