The United States Treasury announced new sanctions Monday against two senior Chinese government officials over their role in the “serious human rights abuses” against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
“These designations include Wang Junzheng, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and Chen Mingguo, Director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB),” the administration wrote in a statement accompanying the official announcement. “Due to their roles in the XPCC and XPSB, respectively, Wang Junzheng (Wang) and Chen Mingguo (Chen) are connected to serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, which reportedly includes arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang, and other ethnic minorities in the region.”
China’s President Xi Jinping applauds after the result of the vote on changes to Hong Kong’s election system was announced during the closing session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2021. (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)
Monday’s designations, Treasury notes, were taken in conjunction with the United Kingdom, Canada and European Union and represent the latest action in a series of escalating statements from the Biden administration aimed at forcing Beijing to curb its human rights abuses. (RELATED: China Says Black Americans Are Being ‘Slaughtered,’ So US Shouldn’t Comment On Uyghur Genocide)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly raised the issue with Chinese officials during tense meetings last week in Alaska.
China’s Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi told Blinken at that meeting that the U.S. has no business commenting on China’s internal politics when black Americans are being “slaughtered” in the streets.
“China is firmly opposed to US interference in China’s internal affairs,” he stated. “We have expressed our staunch opposition to such interference, and we will take firm actions in response.”
WATCH:
The U.S. and China leveled sharp rebukes of each others’ policies in the first high-level, in-person talks of the Biden administration, with deeply strained relations of the two global rivals on rare public display in Alaska https://t.co/cl3SoVXQmE pic.twitter.com/JAJxufB674
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 19, 2021
This is a developing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.