“Chinese authorities will continue to face the consequences as long as the atrocities occur in Xinjiang,” said Andrea M. Gacki, director of the Treasury Department of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. “The Treasury is committed to promoting accountability for the Chinese government’s human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention and torture against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities.”
The United States has appointed Wang Junzheng, secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Department of Public Security. “These individuals are designated in accordance with Executive Order (EO) 13818, which is based on and implements the Magnitsky Global Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption,” said the Department of Human Rights. Treasure.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the Chinese campaign against Uighurs as genocide.
“Amid growing international condemnation, the PRC continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Blinken said in a statement, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “The United States reiterates its calls to the PRC to end the crackdown on Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslims, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, including the release of all arbitrarily detained in internment camps and detention centers. . “
‘Solidarity’
Blinken emphasized last week that the United States was also expressing the concerns of its allies and indicated that in the future, Washington will also act together with them, an approach that American officials say is more effective than targeting China one by one.
On Monday, he said the United States “took this action today in solidarity with our partners in the UK, Canada and the European Union … These actions demonstrate our continued commitment to working multilaterally to advance respect for human rights and shine shed light on those in the PRC government and the CCP responsible for these atrocities. ”
The Treasury Department said in a statement that “complementary actions using these global human rights sanctions regimes allow partners with similar ideas to form a unified front to identify, promote accountability and interrupt access to the international financial system by those who abuse human rights. human rights”.
Also on Monday, the United States announced a second set of sanctions coordinated with the European Union, assigning the punishment to Burmese military officials and two military units for their violent crackdown on democratic protests in that country.
The European Union announced its sanctions on Monday, naming Zhu Hailun, former head of the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (XUAR), and three other senior officials, for overseeing the detention and indoctrination program aimed at Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities. in Xinjiang, they said. according to the Official Journal of the European Union.
China responded almost immediately with tit-for-tat penalties, announcing sanctions on Monday against 10 EU politicians and four entities for “spreading lies and misinformation maliciously.” They will be banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, while their companies and related institutions are banned from doing business with China, he said.
David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, said on Monday that China’s sanctions against MPs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and EU bodies are “unacceptable and will have consequences”.
“Human rights are inalienable rights,” said Sassoli.
The EU said that Zhu Hailun was described as the “architect” of this Uighur indoctrination program and “is therefore responsible for serious human rights violations in China, in particular arbitrary large-scale detentions inflicted on Uighurs and people of other ethnic minorities. Muslim women. “
The sanctions marked the first time that the EU attacked China with its human rights sanctions regime, which came into force in December 2020 and was used for the first time for the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
‘Roughly interfering’
In a statement published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China accused the EU of “disregarding and distorting the facts” and “grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs”, imposing sanctions on its officials.
Chinese citizens listed by the EU are now subject to an asset freeze and will be banned from traveling to the EU. The sanctions also prevent any person or entity in the EU from making funds available, directly or indirectly, to listed persons.
The EU said that Zhu Hailun was “responsible for maintaining internal security and law enforcement in XUAR. As such, he held a key political post in charge of overseeing and implementing a large-scale surveillance, detention and indoctrination program aimed at Uighurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities. ”
Zhu is the former secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang Uyghur (XUAR), former Deputy Secretary of the XUAR Party Committee and Former Deputy Head of the regional legislative body, according to the Official Journal of the Union European Union.
Three other Xinjiang officials were sanctioned: Wang; Deputy Secretary of the XUAR Party Committee, Wang Mingshan; and Chen Mingguo, Director of the Xinjiang Department of Public Security.
In addition to the ten European politicians, China has also sanctioned four entities, including the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament’s Human Rights Subcommittee, the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation.
“The Chinese government is firmly determined to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” added the statement. “The Chinese side calls on the EU side to reflect on itself, to face directly the severity of its error and to correct it. It must stop teaching human rights lessons and interfere in its internal affairs.”