The European Union agreed Wednesday (March 17) to blacklist several Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang, two EU diplomatic officials said. This is the first Time the EU has imposed sanctions on China since it imposed an arms embargo on the country after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989.
According to Reuters, EU ambassadors approved a travel ban and asset freeze on four Chinese officials and one entity, whose names and that of the entity will not be made public until they receive formal approval from EU foreign ministers on March 22.
The report said an EU diplomat said : “The EU has taken restrictive measures against serious human rights violations and abuses.”
EU diplomats told Reuters that the Chinese officials were accused of violating the human rights of China’s Uighur Muslim minority. They said the imposition of the sanctions reflected deep concern in Europe, the United States and Canada about the Uighurs.
The report also said that although the sanctions are largely symbolic, the move marks a clear hardening of EU policy toward China. The EU has long viewed China as a friendly trading partner, but now sees a systematic violation of fundamental rights and freedoms in China.
Just a day earlier, China had warned the EU over its plans to impose sanctions on China for human rights violations in Xinjiang, saying Beijing would not budge if Brussels interfered in China’s internal affairs.
“We want dialogue, not confrontation, and ask the EU side to think twice before acting,” said Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese mission to the EU, “If someone insists on confrontation, we will not give in.”
Some international human rights groups say at least a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are being held in internment camps in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. They are allegedly subjected to human rights violations in the camps, including torture, forced labor, forced sterilization, forced abortions, rape and sexual abuse, and political indoctrination.
Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese mission to the EU, denied allegations that China persecutes Uighurs and forces them to labor in Xinjiang, saying that vocational training and de-extremist Education efforts in Xinjiang are based on learning from and incorporating the international community’s experience in fighting terrorism. He said that the so-called “concentration camps,” “genocide,” “forced labor” and so on are “woven lies He said the so-called “concentration camps,” “genocide” and “forced labor” are “woven lies” and malicious political speculation by some “extreme anti-Chinese elements.
The last time the EU imposed sanctions on China was in 1989 when it imposed an arms embargo on China, and this measure is still in effect.
The EU’s current list of sanctions for human rights violations includes the names of 11 individuals and entities. It also includes officials from Russia, Libya, South Sudan and North Korea.
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