BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union imposed sanctions on Monday on four Chinese officials, including a security director, for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the first sanctions against Beijing since the arms embargo in 1989, following the crackdown on Tiananmen Square.
Accused of mass arrests of Muslim Uighurs in northwest China, the targets of sanctions include Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Department of Public Security. The EU said Chen was responsible for “serious human rights violations”.
In its Official Journal, the EU accused Chen of “arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted on Uighurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities, as well as systematic violations of their freedom of religion or belief”.
Others hit by travel bans and asset freezes were: senior Chinese officials Wang Mingshan and Wang Junzheng, the former chief of the Xinjiang region in China, Zhu Hailun and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Department.
China denies any human rights violations in Xinjiang and says its camps offer vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
Although mainly symbolic, the sanctions mark a significant tightening in EU policy towards China, which Brussels has long considered a benign trading partner, but now sees as a systematic abuser of basic rights and freedoms.
They are also expected to ignite tensions between Brussels and Beijing. The EU has not sanctioned China since imposing an arms embargo in 1989, following the pro-democracy crackdown on Tiananmen Square. The arms embargo is still in place.
All 27 EU governments agreed to the punitive measures, but Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called them “harmful” and “useless”, reflecting the bloc’s divisions over how to deal with China’s rise and protect commercial interests.
China is the EU’s second largest trading partner, after the United States, and Beijing is a big market and a big investor that has courted the poorest countries in Central Europe.
POSSIBLE RETALIATION
But the EU, which considers itself a defender of human rights, is deeply concerned about the fate of the Uighurs. Britain, Canada and the United States also expressed serious concerns.
UN rights activists and experts say at least 1 million Muslims are being detained in camps in remote western Xinjiang. Activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labor and sterilization.
The EU sanctions target officials who apparently planned and enforced the arrests in Xinjiang and come after the Dutch parliament followed Canada and the United States in labeling China’s treatment of Uighurs as genocide, which China rejects.
Last week, China’s ambassador to the bloc, Zhang Ming, said the sanctions would not change Beijing’s policies, qualifying the confrontation and warning measures for retaliation.
The EU also called for the release of Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2014. He received the European Parliament’s human rights award in 2019.
Reporting by Robin Emmott, edited by William Maclean