On Monday (March 22) the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have announced sanctions actions against Chinese officials over human rights issues in Xinjiang, China.
This is the first Time since the Biden administration took office that the U.S. and its allies have acted jointly on China, and the first time since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident that the European Union and the United Kingdom have launched sanctions against China over human rights issues.
The EU was the first to issue a statement in the round of sanctions, announcing early Monday that it was sanctioning four Chinese officials and one entity in the Xinjiang region – Wang Junzheng, deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee and party secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; Chen Mingguo, head of the Xinjiang Public Security Department; Wang Mingshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee; former Xinjiang Deputy Party Secretary and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Zhu Hailun, and the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The sanctions include a travel ban and freezing of overseas assets and transactions.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry immediately responded by calling the EU sanctions “based on lies and false information” and announced similar sanctions against 10 individuals and four entities within the EU.
Subsequently, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada joined the EU in announcing their own sanctions orders.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced two new targets – Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo – who were sanctioned for their “association with serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang” by freezing their overseas assets and transactions and being barred from entering the country. The sanctions were imposed by the Trump administration last July. The Trump Administration already imposed equivalent sanctions on Chinese officials, including Zhu Hailun and Wang Mingshan, and the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in July of last year.
“As long as atrocities occur in Xinjiang, the Chinese authorities will continue to face consequences,” OFAC head Andrea M. Gacki said in a statement.
Secretary of State John Blinken issued a statement after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions condemning China’s “genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in Xinjiang” and calling on the Chinese government to end its crackdown on Uighurs and members of other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and to release all those arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang’s internment camps.
Britain and Canada also immediately announced the same list of sanctions and measures as the EU. In his statement, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “The evidence of widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang cannot be ignored – including reports of mass detention and surveillance, torture and forced sterilization.” He said the evidence is not only clear, but also sobering.
Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs also said in a statement that “there is a growing body of evidence pointing to systematic, state-led human rights violations by the Chinese authorities. This includes the mass arbitrary detention of more than one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities on the basis of religion and ethnicity, as well as political re-Education, forced labor, torture and forced sterilization.” Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau urged Beijing to allow independent international experts “free access” to the Xinjiang region to observe and report first-hand on the situation there.
It is also worth noting that Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Guanguo is not on the sanctions list of the EU, UK and Canada this time. Last July, he was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department along with Zhu Hailun and Wang Mingshan.
U.S., U.K. and Canada Unanimously Emphasize Allied Cooperation
The U.S., U.K. and Canada all emphasized in a statement that the current round of sanctions is the result of full cooperation with each other.
Secretary of State John Blinken said the U.S. sanctions are also a show of solidarity with our allies in this round of sanctions. He said, “These actions demonstrate our continued commitment to multilateral cooperation to promote respect for human rights and to expose those within the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party who are responsible for these atrocities.”
In a statement today, Blinken said, “A united transatlantic response sends a powerful signal to those who violate or trample on international human rights, and we will take further action in consultation with like-minded partners. We will continue to stand with our allies around the world in calling for an immediate end to China’s crimes and justice for the many victims.”
Canadian Foreign Minister Garneau also said, “We join our partners in calling on the Chinese government to end this systematic campaign of repression against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities and to hold those responsible accountable.”
In his statement to the British House of Commons today, British Foreign Minister Raab said, “It is clear that by acting with our partners, we are sending the clearest possible message to the Chinese government that the international community will not turn a blind eye to such gross and systematic violations of fundamental human rights and that we will work together to hold those responsible to account. ”
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