The U.S. has stepped up financial and trade penalties over China\u2019s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, along with its crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong.<\/b>
\nBEIJING \u2014 China on Sunday said it will take \u201cnecessary measures\u201d to respond to the United States blacklisting of Chinese companies over their alleged role in abuses of Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic minorities. The Commerce Ministry said the U.S. move constituted an \u201cunreasonable suppression of Chinese enterprises and a serious breach of international economic and trade rules.\u201d China will \u201ctake necessary measures to firmly safeguard Chinese companies\u2019 legitimate rights and interests,\u201d the ministry\u2019s statement said. No details were given, but China has denied allegations of arbitrary detention and forced labor in the far western region of Xinjiang and increasingly responded to sanctions against companies and officials with its own bans on visas and financial links. The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement Friday that the electronics and technology firms and other businesses helped enable \u201cBeijing\u2019s campaign of repression, mass detention and high-technology surveillance\u201d against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The penalties prohibit Americans from selling equipment or other goods to the firms. The U.S. has stepped up financial and trade penalties over China\u2019s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, along with its crackdown on democracy in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong. The Chinese government since 2017 has detained a million or more people in Xinjiang. Critics accuse China of operating forced labor camps and carrying out torture and coerced sterilization as it allegedly seeks to assimilate Muslim ethnic minority groups. The U.S. Commerce Department said 14 companies were added to its Entity List over their dealings in Xinjiang, and another five for aiding China\u2019s armed forces. \u201cThe Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to taking strong, decisive action to target entities that are enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang or that use U.S. technology to fuel China\u2019s destabilizing military modernization efforts,\u201d Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement posted on the department\u2019s website. Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page. Enter your email and password to access comments. Forgot Password? Don’t have a Talk profile? Create one. Invalid username\/password. Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration. Create a commenting profile by providing an email address, password and display name. You will receive an email to complete the registration. Please note the display name will appear on screen when you participate. Already registered? Log in to join the discussion. Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login to participate in the conversation. Here\u2019s why. Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code. Send questions\/comments to the editors. \u00ab Previous<\/p>\n