A protester wearing a mask is holding an American flag during a protest against human rights abuses in China against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, urging the US government to take action against Beijing on April 6, 2019, in Washington, USA.
Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency Getty Images
China has imposed sanctions on two US religious rights officials, a Canadian member of parliament and a human rights subcommittee of the Canadian House of Commons, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday.
The sanctions are the latest escalation of a growing dispute between Western nations and Beijing over the treatment of China’s ethnic and religious minorities, especially Xinjiang Province.
Chinese sanctions target the president and vice president of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins. USCIRF condemned China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang and approved recent US sanctions against Chinese officials.
Beijing also targeted Canadian MP Michael Chong, who is vice chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee. The Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs for International Human Rights was also sanctioned.
The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee released a report earlier this month, based on subcommittee meetings, which concluded that human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in China constitute crimes against humanity and genocide.
Chinese sanctions prohibit officials from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, and prohibit Chinese citizens and institutions from doing business with officials and exchanging views with the human rights subcommittee.
The sanctions come in response to the punitive measures that the US imposed on two Chinese officials earlier this week. The Biden administration said it had imposed these sanctions in response to human rights violations against Uighur Muslims.
US sanctions targeted Wang Junzheng, the party committee secretary of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, the director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.
The two officials were targeted because of their connection to “arbitrary detention and severe physical abuse, among other serious human rights abuses involving Uighurs,” the Treasury said in a statement Monday.
Canada has also imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for Uyghur treatment.