US Sanctions on Chinese Officials over 'Abuse' of Muslims

The US has announced sanctions against Chinese officials who continue to be liable for human rights violations on Muslim communities in Xinjiang. China is suspected of widespread killings, ethnic repression, and compulsory sterilization of Uighurs and others. The restrictions threaten the US-connected financial assets of national Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo and three other officials. China denies any mistreatment of Muslims in far-western Xinjiang.

Authorities are believed to have imprisoned over a million individuals in re-education camps in recent years. They claim that "vocational training" is required to combat radicalism and separatism. Chen, who serves on the influential Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, is the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to be struck by US sanctions, claims the Trump administration. He is seen as the architect of Beijing's policies against minorities and was previously in charge in Tibet.

The other officials targeted are Wang Mingshan, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; Zhu Hailun, a senior party member in Xinjiang, and former security official Huo Liujun.

It is now a crime in the US to participate in financial transactions with both of them and seize their US-based properties. However, Huo would not be immune to visa limits that will prohibit anyone and their relatives from accessing the United States. Sanctions have not been placed on the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau as a whole.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US was acting against "horrific and systematic abuses" in the region."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," he said in a statement.

He said that the US had placed additional visa limits on other unnamed Communist Party officials suspected to be responsible for violations in Xinjiang. Members of their relatives can often be subject to prohibitions.

Tensions between the US and China are now strong over the coronavirus pandemic and China's move to implement national security laws in Hong Kong, which has attracted major Western criticism.

Source: BBC