China announced retaliatory sanctions on nine British citizens and four entities for “maliciously spreading lies and disinformation” about its Xinjiang region.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday that it is applying sanctions on the China Research Group, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, the Uyghur Tribunal and Essex Court Chambers.
The nine include British lawmakers Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat, Neil O’Brien, Tim Loughton, Geoffrey Nice and Iain Duncan Smith, who served as Conservative Party leader from 2001 to 2003 and British secretary of state for work and pensions from 2010 to 2016.
The individuals and their relatives are banned from entering China or trading with Chinese citizens and institutions, and any assets they have in China would be frozen, the statement said.
Sanctions London had levied on China over allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang were “based on nothing but lies and disinformation,” and “grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs,” the ministry said.
The message being sent to the UK and Europe is that by “siding with the US, they will not do themselves any good,” said Renmin University Institute of International Affairs director Wang Yiwei (王義桅), a former Chinese diplomat.
China’s aim is to eliminate the influence of these individuals, which removes them as stumbling blocks to future cooperation, he said.
Earlier this week, the UK joined the US, Canada and the EU in imposing sanctions against China over alleged human rights abuses of the Uighurs minority in Xinjiang.
Western governments accuse China of interning up to 1 million Muslim Uighurs in camps and compelling them to work, while also forcing children across the region into boarding schools.
The US and lawmakers in Canada and the Netherlands have labeled Beijing’s actions in the region as genocide.
China dismisses the allegations, saying that it is building infrastructure to boost the region’s economy, providing jobs and educating Uighur children.
The US and its allies should face up to their own human rights failures, ministry spokesman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a regular press briefing on Thursday.
Multinational companies are becoming ensnared in the controversy, with Chinese social media users calling for boycotts of Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Nike for not using cotton grown in Xinjiang.
Chinese firms and investors are now rallying around Xinjiang, which produces more than 80 percent of the country’s cotton.
Anta Sports Products, the Chinese sneaker company that owns the Fila brand, was among the firms that have issued statements saying that they will continue to source the material from the region.
Shares of Anta rose 4.9 percent on Friday in Hong Kong trading.
Apple has cut ties with Chinese component supplier Ofilm Group Co over allegations that it is involved in a Chinese government program that transfers minorities from Xinjiang to other parts of the country for work, a person familiar with the matter said last week.
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