Tim Hortons to expand operations with money from Uyghur genocide-linked Chinese investment firms

The money, raised from Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, and Eastern Bell Capital, is meant to help the company open up 200 more shops across China in 2021, and 1,500 in the next few years.

Sequoia Capital, a massive investment firm which is based in the United States but does extensive work in China, holds investments in Yitu, a Chinese technology company which has helped develop AI facial recognition technology to identify Uyghurs. The Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in northwestern China, are currently being subjected to genocidal policies perpetrated by the communist Chinese government.

Up to two million Uyghurs have been deported to concentration camps since the genocide began, with prisoners being subjected to daily political indoctrination, mass sterilization, sexual abuse including of children, slavery, and torture. A report issued by a Parliamentary subcommittee last year directly compared the Chinese government's actions to the Holocaust.

The Canadian government officially recognized China's policies towards Uyghurs as a genocide earlier this week with broad support from all parties, although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet abstained from voting.

Tencent Holdings is a Chinese firm which owns the Chinese social media app WeChat, which has been complicit in promoting the censorious polices of the Chinese government. According to the NGO Freedom House, "Chinese police have also harnessed WeChat to connect with overseas Uyghurs, demand personal information or details about activists, and insert state monitors into private groups."

Tencent also gladly shares its data with the Chinese government, which uses it "to root out unauthorized religious activity." The Chinese government has pursued a policy of religious persecution not just against their Muslim Uyghur minority, but also against the Christian population of the country.

Tim Hortons currently operates 150 locations across China, but faces stiff competition from companies such as Starbucks, which is the most popular coffee chain in the country.

Tim Hortons has not disclosed how much money they raised from the firms.