Former Xinjiang security official Huo Liujun was also named to the list (File)
Washington / Beijing:
The United States has imposed sanctions and visa restrictions on three senior Chinese officials, including the regional head of the ruling Communist Party, for alleged human rights abuses targeting Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other minority groups in the agitated Muslim-majority Xinjiang Province.
China is accused of mass detentions, religious persecution and forced sterilization of Uyghurs and others in the resource-rich northwest province.
Authorities are believed to have detained approximately one million people there in re-education camps in recent years for “vocational training” to combat radicalism and separatism in Xinjiang.
The three senior officials named by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement were: Chen Quanguo, secretary of the Communist Party in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and a member of the powerful Politburo; Zhu Hailun, party secretary of the Xinjiang Political and Legal Committee; and Wang Mingshan, party secretary of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
Chen is the most senior Chinese official ever affected by the US sanctions. He is said to be the architect of China’s harsh policy against minorities and was previously in charge in Tibet.
Former Xinjiang security official Huo Liujun was also named to the list.
Following the American move, they and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter America. In the United States, it is now a crime to conduct financial transactions with each of them, and their American assets will be frozen.
“The United States is taking action today against the horrific and systematic abuses in Xinjiang and calling on all nations who share our concerns about the CCP’s attacks on human rights and fundamental freedoms to join us in condemn this behavior, “said Pompeo.
In a separate statement, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said the United States was determined to use the full extent of its financial powers to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable in Xinjiang and around the world.
“The United States will not sit idly by as the CCP commits human rights abuses targeting Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, including forced labor, detention arbitrary mass and forced population control and attempts to erase their culture and their Muslim faith, “said Pompeo.
