BEIJING (AP) – China on Friday announced sanctions against British individuals and entities after the UK joined the EU and others punishing Chinese officials accused of human rights violations in the Xinjiang region. The move was the opening salvo in his last full response to criticism and sanctions from the West.
A statement by China’s Foreign Ministry said the Western bloc’s move was based on “nothing but lies and disinformation, a blatant violation of international law and basic standards for international relations, a gross interference in the internal affairs of the country. China, and seriously undermines relations between China and the UK. ”
The British ambassador to China had been called for a diplomatic protest, the statement said. Sanctioned individuals and groups should not be allowed to visit Chinese territory and have no financial transactions with Chinese citizens and institutions.
During a daily newsletter, State Department spokesman Hua Chunying made a series of allegations against the US, UK, allied nations and parts of the Western media, saying they had worked together to undermine China’s unity and development .
Sanctions against Chinese officials in Xinjiang are part of a comprehensive plot to destabilize the region and do not reflect real concerns about the rights of Muslims, said Hu, who said Beijing’s response was necessary to “protect China’s interests and dignity. to defend”.
“For a long time, the US, UK and others have felt free to say what they want without allowing others to do the same,” said Hua. Those days are over and the West will “have to get used to it gradually,” said Hua.
The latest sanctions and the harsh tone of Hua’s comments reflect China’s increasingly strict diplomacy under nationalist leader Xi Jinping, who has pledged to defend China’s interests at all costs. In recent days, China has blocked already very limited BBC broadcasts in the country and has tried two Canadians in retaliation for the arrest of a director of Chinese telecom giant Huawei in that country.
China has rejected all criticisms of its policies in Xinjiang, along with the crackdown on opposition figures in Hong Kong and threats against Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its own territory. It has thrown off US sanctions against officials accused of suppressing democracy in Hong Kong, and angrily denounced a British plan to offer millions of citizens of its former colony a path to residency and citizenship.
Hua opened her briefing with a video clip of former assistant to retired US Secretary of State Colin Powell who said the US military presence in Afghanistan, which shares a close border with China, was in part an attempt to thwart Beijing’s rise. . She also cited the National Endowment for Democracy and the Central Intelligence Agency as working covertly to sow instability.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab denounced the sanctions and urged the Chinese authorities to allow UN representatives in Xinjiang to “verify facts” if it is to “credibly refute allegations of human rights violations”. China says diplomats are welcome in the region, but only under conditions imposed by Beijing.
China “is sanctioning its critics,” unlike the UK and the rest of the international community who “punish human rights violations,” Raab said.
Nine British individuals and four institutions were placed on the sanctions list, including MP Iain Duncan Smith and the Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission. Duncan Smith is a former Conservative leader.
China’s sanctions are the latest step in an increasingly bitter feud over Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of detaining more than 1 million members of Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups, using forced labor and enforcing birth control measures.
Chinese state television on Thursday called for a boycott of Swedish retail chain H&M, while Beijing lashed out at foreign clothing and shoe brands following Monday’s decision by the 27 countries European Union, the United States, Great Britain and Canada to impose financial sanctions on four Chinese. officials blamed for wrongdoing in Xinjiang. Cotton and other agricultural products are an important part of the local economy in the vast but sparsely populated Xinjiang.
Companies ranging from Nike to Burberry with an established presence in China were also under attack online, with some Chinese celebrities saying they broke endorsement deals.
China is determined to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests, and warns the British side not to go further down the wrong path. Otherwise, China will resolutely give further reactions, ”said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Others on the State Department sanctions list included politicians, scientists and human rights activists Tom Tugendhat, Neil O’Brien, David Alton, Tim Loughton, Nusrat Ghani, Helena Kennedy, Geoffrey Nice and Joanne Nicola Smith Finley. The China Research Group, founded by a group of conservative MPs, the independent research group Uyghur Tribunal, and the Essex Court Chambers, a law firm that also described Chinese policy on minorities in Xinjiang as crimes against humanity and genocide, were also mentioned.
Ghani, a Muslim MP, said she will “not be intimidated” by Beijing’s “extraordinary” action.
“This is a wake-up call to all democratic countries and lawmakers that we will not be able to do our day-to-day business without China sanctioning us for only trying to reveal what is happening in Xinjiang and the abuse against the Uyghurs,” she said. BBC radio.
Numerous other Chinese government departments and state media joined in condemning the Western sanctions.
The Xinjiang government made a lengthy statement praising the region’s economic growth, political stability and population growth and pointing to violence and human rights abuses in the US, Britain, Canada and elsewhere, and chaos due to military interventions in Iraq and Libya.
“Any plot to undermine Xinjiang’s prosperity and development … will certainly be doomed to disgraceful failure,” the statement said.
China’s ruling Communist Party and nominally independent nationalists who operate primarily online have a long history of attacks on foreign companies and even entire countries seen as insulting China’s national dignity or harming the country’s core interests .
South Korean retail giant Lotte saw its Chinese operations destroyed after the country provided an American air defense system to which Beijing objected, while relations with Norway were under strain for years after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to pro-democracy writer Liu Xiaobo , who died. in a Chinese prison in 2017.
AP journalist Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.