China diverts attention from its crushing of the Tibetans and the Uyghurs by citing the way the US and Canada crushed indigenous people in the past.

The comparison is valid, and if we look at this as a matter of competition between powers, it's poetic justice. But if the point is to save people from repression and injustice, historic whataboutism is a distraction. Ending the unjust treatment of indigenous people today is a real cause, but encouraging a new imperialism is not going to help them. China will lure them, use them, and spit them out, even faster and more blatantly than the US has done.