On January 20, President Trump left office. The following day, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced sanctions against 28 members of the Trump Administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, health Secretary Alex Azar, Under Secretary of State Keith Krach, and U.S. Ambassador to the United States Matthew Pottinger. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, Health Secretary Alex Azar, Under Secretary of State Keith Krach, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft, along with former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former White House Chief Strategic Advisor Stephen Bannon, and others. Stephen Bannon, former White House chief strategic adviser, and others.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the 28 members and their families are banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, and they and their affiliated companies and institutions are restricted from doing business with China. It is believed that the Chinese Communist Party fears that imposing sanctions before President Trump leaves office will invite the Trump administration to impose stronger sanctions on the CCP, and will only hold back until after he leaves office.
Ironically, being sanctioned by the authoritarian Chinese regime has always been considered an “honor” by the American political establishment. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was sanctioned last year for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, said publicly, “I have no intention of going to China anytime soon. And I don’t expect them to roll out the red carpet for me. In fact I feel very proud of them. Any Time a totalitarian or evil regime opposes you, it means you’re right.”
Bannon responded via a tweet from Washington Post reporter Josh Rogin, saying that being sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party was a “great honor” for him and that he would fight harder for the freedom of “ordinary people” in China.
The day before the Trump administration left office, Pompeo announced that the Trump administration had found the Chinese Communist Party guilty of “genocide and Crimes Against Humanity” for its crackdown on the Uighur people in Xinjiang. Five days before leaving office, Pompeo also announced sanctions against six Chinese and Hong Kong officials for their responsibility in the January 6 arrests of more than 50 pro-democracy activists by Hong Kong police. This is the third time the U.S. has sanctioned Chinese and Hong Kong officials for persecuting democracy and freedom in Hong Kong since the Communist Party implemented the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” last June.
On August 7, 2020, the U.S. sanctioned 11 senior Chinese and Hong Kong officials; on December 7, the U.S. sanctioned 14 vice chairmen of the National People’s Congress at the vice-presidential level; on December 10, International Human Rights Day, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against 17 foreign officials for serious human rights violations, including those in Xiamen, Fujian Province, who persecuted Falun Gong practitioners. The State Department announced sanctions against 17 foreign officials for serious human rights violations, including Huang Yuanxiong, chief of the Wucun Police Station of the Xiamen City Public Security Bureau in Fujian Province, for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Pompeo said that Huang Yuanxiong is not allowed to enter the U.S. with his spouse because of his serious violations of freedom of belief, detention and interrogation of Falun Gong practitioners.
The Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong is a serious violation of the International Covenant on Human Rights, as it has destroyed freedom of worship and killed basic human rights. Since 2002, Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Xia Deren, Zhao Zhizhen, Huang Huahua, and 60 other CCP officials who have been heavily involved in the persecution of Falun Gong have been criminally charged with “crimes against humanity,” “torture,” and “mass extermination” in more than 30 countries and regions on five continents. They have been charged with “crimes against humanity,” “torture,” and “mass extermination.
Chinese officials who persecute Falun Gong practitioners, even those at the grassroots level of police station chiefs, have undoubtedly faced the dilemma of “running into barriers everywhere they go and having difficulty moving around the world. As the U.S. State Department announces sanctions against human rights villains, Falun Gong practitioners in 29 countries have submitted the latest list of persecutors to their governments, demanding that the villains and their families be banned from entering the country and their assets be frozen in accordance with the law. The list was submitted by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, 18 countries in the European Union, and six other countries: Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Mexico.
The submission of the list of villains coincides with the adoption by the EU Council on December 7 of the “global human rights sanctions regime,” the EU version of the Magnitsky Act, which will The global human rights sanctions regime will punish human rights abuses, including genocide, inhumane crimes and abuses such as torture, slavery, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment. Sanctioned individuals will be subject to asset freezes and travel restrictions, and will no longer be able to set foot on the territory of the EU-27.
The U.S. has always been a leader in the international community in defending human rights; it has been a high level of consensus among democratic countries such as the EU to sanction villains who persecute human rights. In 2016, the U.S. passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which began to deny visas and freeze the assets of human rights persecutors.
Since the publication of the “Notice” on the Minghui website in May 2019, more than 100,000 people have been listed on the “evil list” so far. The U.S. government has stated that the list can be submitted if there are facts of persecution, and that even if the perpetrators or their families have already entered the U.S., visas can be revoked and the perpetrators and their families can be deported to prevent them from trying to enter a “haven of sin.
On December 20 of that year, the State Department issued a statement that the United States had taken action against violators of religious freedom by designating 68 individuals and entities in nine countries for corruption and human rights violations under the law, including denying visas and freezing the assets of Chinese Communist regimes and officials. State Department officials revealed that 28 countries have enacted laws similar to the U.S. Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Officials also made clear that in recent years, many people have been denied visas for persecution of human rights because of their involvement with Falun Gong.
On July 9 of last year, the United States announced sanctions against the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and four Chinese Communist Party officials, including Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo. The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 13818, signed by President Trump, which is based on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which punishes human rights offenders and corrupt individuals. During Chen’s tenure as governor of Hebei Province, many Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death, and after he was transferred to the party secretary of Xinjiang Region, he still actively persecuted Falun Gong, creating numerous unjust and tragic cases that can be described as full of bloodshed.
On the surface, the U.S. and China have sanctioned each other’s officials, seemingly in a confrontational mode; in fact, the two are very different in nature, as if they were worlds apart.
Respecting freedom of faith is a common concept of the international community; safeguarding basic human rights is a universal value that civilized countries adhere to. With the widespread dissemination of the truth, the international community no longer tolerates the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. The Chinese officials sanctioned by the U.S. are almost all villains who participated or collaborated in the persecution of human rights, and are on the “evil list”; on the contrary, the U.S. officials sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party belong to the Trump administration, who firmly defend human rights. The “sanction” is instead a crowning glory.
Last year, Canadian Falun Gong practitioners launched a petition calling on the government to use the country’s adopted Magnitsky Act to sanction Chinese Communist Party officials who persecute Falun Gong, and in just one month received more than 20,000 signatures of support from the Canadian public. In the case of Canada, the Human Rights Accountability Act particularly targets CCP officials who brutally persecute Falun Gong practitioners, said Petra Sigmund, head of the Asia-Pacific Division of the German Foreign Office. Strict sanctions against those who persecute human rights are already the trend of mainstream opinion worldwide.
After the Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act was published in various countries around the world, the action of “sanctioning evil people” has deterred many persecutors of Falun Gong. The net of heaven is wide, but it does not leak. All CCP officials who have committed human rights abuses and persecuted Falun Gong, regardless of whether they are the chief culprits or accomplices, can escape legal responsibility. If they persist in their persecution and do not stop, they will not escape the severe sanctions and punishment of the Human Rights Accountability Law, which is widely distributed around the world.
Recent Comments