Western countries, such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, imposed sanctions all at once yesterday (22) on the human rights crackdown in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
The US Treasury Department announced that it would add two Chinese officials, including Wang Jun-jeong, secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee, and Chen Ming-gou, chief of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, to the sanctions against the human rights of minorities such as the Uighurs.
The European Union (EU) also imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and one organization, including two sanctioned by the United States. The UK and Canada also included the same targets on their sanctions list.
US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln, who is visiting Brussels, Belgium, said today that “China continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
The move was announced individually by each country, but the media evaluated it as a diplomatic achievement of the Joe Biden administration, which led the joint response of the allies.
Meanwhile, China responded by announcing sanctions against EU personnel.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the day that “it will seriously infringe on China’s sovereignty and interests and sanction 10 European personnel and 4 organizations that have maliciously spread lies and false information.”
The sanctions included five members of the European Parliament, members of the European Commission on Human Rights and Security, and a German scholar who published a report criticizing China’s suppression of human rights among Tibetans and Uighurs.
They and their families are banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, and businesses and organizations related to them are also restricted from travel to China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Western countries and UN experts criticize China for violating human rights such as torture, forced labor, and murder by operating a concentration camp of 1 million people in Xinjiang, but China denies this.
VOA news