U.S. Sanctions Chinese High-ranking Officials over Uighur Rights Violations

The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against the high-ranking Chinese officials, accusing them for human rights violations against Uighur Muslim minorities in Xinjiang in a move likely to further boost tensions between Washington and Beijing.

 

The sanctions target on Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party Secretary in Xinjiang, which is the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to be blacklisted by the US, and three other officials. According to Reuters report, the sanctions were imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators worldwide by freezing any U.S. assets, banning U.S. travel and prohibiting Americans from doing business with them.

 

Therefore, it is now a crime in the US to conduct financial transactions with all of them, and they will have their US-based assets frozen.

 

A White House official told reporters that the blacklisting is “no joke,” he said. “Not only in terms of symbolic and reputational affect, but it does have real meaning on a person’s ability to move around the world and conduct business.”

 

China has been accused of mass detentions, religious persecution and forced sterilisation of Uighurs and other minorities, but denied any mistreatment of Muslims in Xinjiang and said the camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.

 

“The United States will not stand idly by as the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] carries out human rights abuses targeting Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang,” said the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

 

Moreover, he said the US was also placing additional visa restrictions on other unnamed Communist Party officials believed to be responsible for abuses in Xinjiang. Their family members may also be subject to the restrictions, reported BBC.