China on Saturday announced new sanctions against US and Canadian officials in a growing political and economic feud over its policies in the traditionally Muslim region of Xinjiang.
A statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the head of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin, would be barred from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, and having any dealings with Chinese financial entities.
The commission’s vice chair, Tony Perkins, was also included on the sanctions list, along with Canadian Lawmaker Michael Chong and the Canadian parliament’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights.
China has rejected accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and has launched calls for boycotts against foreign firms, including retailers Hennes & Mauritz AB and Nike Inc, along with sanctions against foreign government officials and advocates whom it has said are spreading false information about its policies toward Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.
“They must stop political manipulation on Xinjiang-related issues, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form and refrain from going further down the wrong path. Otherwise, they will get their fingers burnt,” the statement said.
More than 1 million members of the Uighur and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities have been confined to detention camps in Xinjiang, foreign governments and researchers have said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the sanctions “baseless” retaliation for US measures against Chinese officials.
“Beijing’s attempts to intimidate and silence those speaking out for human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” he said.
“We stand in solidarity with Canada, the UK, the EU, and other partners and allies around the world in calling on the PRC [the People’s Republic of China] to end the human rights violations and abuses against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang and to release those arbitrarily detained,” Blinken said in a statement.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said China’s decision to sanction Chong and the parliamentary subcommittee is an attack on freedom of speech regarding human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
“China’s sanctions are an attack on transparency and freedom of expression _ values at the heart of our democracy,” Trudeau wrote on Twitter.
Chong, a foreign affairs critic from the Conservative Party, said he has a duty to call out China’s “genocide” of Uighur Muslims.
“We who live freely in democracies under the rule of law must speak for the voiceless,” Chong wrote on Twitter. “If that means China sanctions me, I’ll wear it as a badge of honor.”
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