The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada have announced sanctions against several Communist Party officials for human rights violations against the Uighur people in Xinjiang, but human rights groups have recently said that Western sanctions against Xinjiang officials appear to have avoided the real target, Chen Quanguo, secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
According to Voice of America 24, the U.K.-based organization Free Tibet has criticized Western sanctions for avoiding Chen Quanguo, the party secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In a statement, the group said, “The officials sanctioned include Chen’s direct deputy Zhu Hailun and several other lower-ranking officials, but Chen himself is notably missing.”
The statement added that Free Tibet has been seeking sanctions against Chen since November last year because he is “the architect of atrocities against the Uighur people.
The group’s CEO, Sam Walton, said the West was right to sanction the four officials, but that Western governments had “ignored” Chen, sending a message to the Communist Party that “they are too afraid to take action against anyone who has real influence in the Central Politburo. He added: “International governments are too afraid to take action against anyone who has real influence in the CPB.
He added, “The international government’s failure to challenge Chen’s behavior in Tibet has given him the position he now holds, allowing him to reproduce on a larger scale the methods he used in Tibet and to use them against the Uighurs. Once again, the government is putting trade ahead of human rights.”
According to Reuters, some experts and diplomatic sources said the absence of Chen Guo from the sanctions list announced by some Western countries on Monday was an attempt to avoid a larger diplomatic dispute.
The EU announced sanctions against four Xinjiang officials and one entity on the 22nd. The four Xinjiang officials include, 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 Bureau, Wang Mingshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, and Zhu Hailun, former deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee. The Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is the sanctioned agency. The sanctions included a travel ban and a freeze on overseas assets and transactions. The UK and Canada followed suit with the same list of sanctions and measures as the EU.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also announced on 22 February that it had added Wang Junzheng and Chen Mingguo to its sanctions list for their “association with serious human rights abuses suffered by minorities in Xinjiang.
In fact, while not on the EU, UK, or Canadian sanctions lists, Xinjiang’s top official Chen Guanguo was sanctioned by the U.S. as early as July of last year.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Chen Guanguo, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Party Secretary of Xinjiang, in July 2020 under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
In addition to Chen Guanguo, the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list includes Huo Liujun, former Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; Zhu Hailun, former Deputy Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau; and Wang Mingshan, Director and Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement on the same day, imposing sanctions and visa restrictions on Chen Guanguo and other senior Communist Party officials for human rights violations. The officials and their immediate Family members were barred from entering the United States.
The U.S. Treasury Department said that any property or interest in property owned directly or indirectly by sanctioned entities and individuals that is in the United States or under the control of a U.S. individual is subject to seizure and must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
This was done in accordance with the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act signed by former President Trump on June 17 of last year.
Under the Act, the U.S. can use sanctions such as freezing the assets of targeted individuals in the U.S., denying them entry into the U.S., and denying or revoking their visas.
A commentator has written that Chen Guanguo, the Party Secretary of Xinjiang for just over two years, has turned beautiful Xinjiang into the world’s largest open-air prison and put millions of good Uighurs into re-Education camps. When Chen Quanguo’s name is mentioned in Xinjiang, Uyghurs are given a jolt, and children immediately stop crying in fear.
Chen was formerly governor of Hebei province and spent five years in Tibet, where he was reassigned as the head of Xinjiang from August 2016. After taking office, Chen set a military order to Xi Jinping, raising the slogan that without stability in Xinjiang, everything is zero. He has reinforced the “concentration camps” that have come under strong criticism, and his iron-fisted approach has been recognized by the CPC Central Committee, with the so-called “Xinjiang governance experience” being extended to other provinces across the country.
On October 25, 2017, at the 19th Communist Party Congress, Chen Guanguo entered the inner circle of power in the CCP, becoming a member of the Central Political Bureau.
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