The world’s largest country, in terms of population, imposed sanctions on top US officials in retaliation to US sanctions over Chinese authorities which includes Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz of US.
The United States of America had slapped sanctions like visa bans and asset freezes on Chen Quanguo, a member of China’s powerful Politburo, and three other senior officials, accusing them of violating the human rights of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang of China. Chen is the Communist Party Secretary in the far western region of Xinjiang and the most senior Chinese politician to ever be blacklisted by the US.
“The United States calls upon the world to stand against the CCP’s acts against its own minority communities in Xinjiang, including mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, religious persecution, and forced birth control and sterilization,” a White House official told reporters, saying the blacklisting was “no joke”.
The move had further deepened the tensions between Beijing and Washington.
In a bid to retaliate to the accusations, China levied sanctions on US politicians and warned to withdraw its “wrong decisions” and “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement that this step also targeted the Republican Congressman Chris Smith, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China and Sam Brownback, the US ambassador, majorly for religious freedom. Moreover, the imposition will be started by Monday, he said.
However, he did not explain as to what the “corresponding sanctions” would consist of.
Hua said, “We urge the US to immediately withdraw its wrong decision, and stop any words and actions that interfere in China’s internal affairs and harm China’s interests. China will make a further response depending on the development of the situation.”
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser’s new book alleged that Trump spoke approvingly of his Chinese counterpart’s explanation of “why he was basically building concentration camps” to intern Uighurs during a G20 meeting in Osaka in 2019 that was attended only by interpreters. This triggered the President to impose sanctions on China to show his disagreement with the same.
Reuters reported Republican Senator Marco Rubio saying that the US’s move was “long overdue” and further steps need to be taken to call out China’s atrocities. “For far too long, Chinese officials have not been held accountable for committing atrocities that likely constitute crimes against humanity,” Rubio said.
Renee Xia, director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, supported the move and encouraged countries like the UK, Canada, Australia and others to take similar measures against China.
Xinjiang is allegedly the hub for detention camps and enforcement centres where Uyghur minorities are enslaved and put through extreme torture for no fault of theirs.
China runs on the policy of eradicating three forms from its country – separatism, extremism and terrorism. After the 2013 cultural revolts, the Chinese government started believing the Uyghur muslims to be the sowing seeds for these forms and hence in a means to eliminate this sense forming in their heads, they created these detention camps to torture them to the maximum extent, ignoring their basic human rights.
The Chinese slammed all allegations put by the US but accepted that they have thrown Uyghur Muslims into what they called “vocational education centres” to let them “learn Mandarin and job skills” to stop them from spreading “terrorism.”
UN reports millions of Uyghur Muslims being imprisoned in these detention camps which have been found through space satellites despite several efforts from the Chinese government to keep the area under strict surveillance.
These Uyghur muslims’ family members report their arrest based on simple things they had done like sending Ramadan greetings to friends or downloading popular music.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week the US was acting against “horrific and systematic abuses” in the region including forced labour, mass detention and involuntary population control.
China is aiming to brainwash the Uyghur Muslims, including children by forcing them eat pork, shaving off their heads and forcibly getting Uyghur women married to Han men.
The international media have repeatedly termed these camps as “forced indoctrination” while China says these are “political education centres to counter extremism”.
Alim Syetoff, Uyghur Service Director, Radio Free Asia, said that there are hundreds, if not more and expanding, of detention camps set up in the Xinjiang region which contain hundreds of thousands of people who are brought just because they are Uyghur, Turkish or Muslim, not because they have committed any act or violence or terrorism.
A BuzzFeed correspondent, Megha Rajagopalan, was one of the very few reporters who were able to get into Xinjiang to cover the ground reality of the area. However, weeks after her article got published on the BuzzFeed website, she got expelled from the country.
The Chinese government aims to limit the imagery coming out of the country through its media. By restricting and controlling the media groups, it is securing the information of the country within its borders.
