CHINA IMPOSES RESTRICTIONS ON 9 UK CITIZENS, 4 ENTITIES IN RESPONSE TO XINJIANG SANCTIONS

Fri 26 March 2021:

China has introduced restrictions on nine UK citizens and four entities in response to London’s sanctions on Beijing over the situation in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials and one entity that they believe have been involved in human rights violations against the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.

Later in the day, the US, Canada and the UK also announced sanctions against China. In a tit-for-tat response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry sanctioned 10 Europeans, including members of the European Parliament, as well as four organizations.

“The United Kingdom (UK) imposed unilateral sanctions on relevant Chinese individuals and entity, citing the human rights issues in Xinjiang.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has summoned British Ambassador to China to lodge solemn representations, expressing firm opposition and strong condemnation. The Chinese side decides to sanction … nine individuals and four entities on the UK side that maliciously spread lies and disinformation,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that they will freeze the property of the sanctioned people and entities as well as ban Chinese citizens and institutions from doing business with them. The name of nine individuals and four entities are Tom Tugendhat, lain Duncan Smith, Neil O’Brien, David Alton, Tim boughlon, Nusrat Omni, Helena Kennedy, Geoffrey Nice, Joanne Nicola Smith Finley, China Research Group, Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, lly.ur Tribunal and Essex Court Chambers.

Beijing will freeze the property of the sanctioned people and entities, as well as ban Chinese citizens and institutions from doing business with them.

China has imprisoned more than 1 million people, including Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups, in a vast network of concentration camps, according to U.S. officials and human rights groups. People have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination, in addition to forced labor, as part of an assimilation campaign in a region whose inhabitants are ethnically and culturally distinct from the Han Chinese majority.