Human rights violations against Muslim Uyghurs include mass detentions, surveillance, population control and political reeducation.
The United States is sanctioning China for its continued human rights violations against the ethnic minority population of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The Department of State revealed that not only are there mass surveillance campaigns against the Uyghurs and other minorities, but “the Chinese Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coercive family planning” in Xinjiang.
According to a statement released by the U. S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the sanctions extend beyond the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to four specific “current or former” Chinese government officials: Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party Secretary of XUAR, Zhu Hailun, a former Deputy Party Secretary of the XUAR, the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), the current Director and Communist Party Secretary of the XPSB, Wang Mingshan, and the former Party Secretary of the XPSB, Huo Liujun.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement about the sanctions claiming that the United States is committed to action.
“The United States will not stand idly by as the CCP carries out human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, to include forced labor, arbitrary mass detention, and forced population control, and attempts to erase their culture and Muslim faith,” he said.
He also encouraged other nations to stand up to China.
