WASHINGTON – The Biden government on Monday sanctioned two Chinese officials, citing their role in serious human rights violations against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Chinese Wang Junzheng, the secretary of the party committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, were sanctioned for their connection to “arbitrary detention and serious physical abuse, among other serious human rights violations. on Uyghurs, ”the Treasury Department said in a statement Monday.
The Ministry of Finance has accused China of using repressive tactics against Uyghurs and other members of the region’s ethnic minorities over the past five years, including mass detention and surveillance.
Targets of this surveillance are often detained and reportedly subjected to various methods of torture and “political re-education,” Treasury wrote in a statement.
Beijing has previously rejected US allegations that it committed genocide against Uyghurs, a Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang’s Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.
“Amid mounting international condemnation, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We will continue to support our allies around the world and call for an immediate end to the crimes of the PRC and for justice for its many victims,” added the country’s top diplomat.
The sanctions of the Biden government are in addition to the measures also taken today by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.
China has also said that allegations of using detention camps are unfounded and that it is instead using facilities to provide vocational training to eradicate Islamist extremism and separatism.
The sanctions follow a controversial meeting between Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, and state councilor Wang Yi in Alaska.
Ahead of the talks, Blinken condemned China’s widespread use of “coercion and aggression” on the international scene and warned that the US will push back if necessary.
“China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undermine democracy in Taiwan, violate human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law” , Blinken said at a press conference in Japan. .
President Joe Biden, speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, has previously said that his approach to China would be different from that of his predecessor in that he would work more closely with allies to mount a backlash against Beijing.
“We will face China’s economic abuses,” Biden said in a speech at the State Department, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor”.
“But we are also willing to work with Beijing if it is in America’s interest to do so,” said Biden. “We will compete from a strong position by building better at home and working with our allies and partners.”