China said Monday it will impose sanctions on three U. S. lawmakers and one ambassador in response to similar actions taken by the U. S. last week against Chinese officials over reputed human rights abuses against Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
China said Monday it will impose sanctions on three U. S. lawmakers and one ambassador in response to similar actions taken by the U. S. last week against Chinese officials over reputed human rights abuses against Muslims in the Xinjiang region.
U. S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N. J., and Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback were targeted, as was the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. The four have been critical of the ruling Communist Party’s policies toward minority groups and people of faith.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the U. S. move had “seriously damaged China-U. S. relations” and that China was determined to uphold its national sovereignty against what it sees as interference in its internal affairs.
“China will respond further according to the development of the situation,” Hua said.
She did not spell out the sanctions beyond saying they would correspond to the American ones. The U. S. prohibited any property transactions by Americans with four senior Chinese officials and barred three of them from entering the U. S.
There was no indication that any of the sanctioned Americans had plans to travel to China.
The sanctioned Chinese officials include Chen Quanguo, who heads the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where more than 1 million members of Muslim minority groups have been incarcerated in what China terms deradicalization and retraining centers.
