China vows to respond to US sanctions

CHINA is ready to respond symmetrically to the restrictions imposed by the US authorities, Liu Pengyu, press secretary of the Chinese embassy in the US , told TASS . This is his response to visa sanctions against a number of Chinese officials.

The State Department explained that China “fails to uphold its obligations to respect and protect human rights,” which is reflected in “human rights abuses and genocide” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Tibet. Beijing also, according to Washington, undermines fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong and carries out “repression around the world.”

China denies the accusations. According to the embassy press secretary, the restrictive measures announced by the State Department are a "gross violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations." Liu Pengyu stressed that the issues of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong are China's internal affairs  "and no foreign country has the right to interfere in them."

In May 2022, an unknown hacker published 5,000 photographs of Uyghurs from police departments dating back to 2018. The people were in custody. The database included images of prison guards with batons and rifles, as well as photos of detainees with signs of beatings on their bodies.

Following this, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the Chinese authorities to stop genocide and crimes against humanity in the Uyghur Autonomous Region. He noted that Washington is deeply concerned about the human rights situation in China and reports of arbitrary detentions of more than 1 million residents of Xinjiang. According to him, relatives of those detained speak of torture, forced sterilization, sexual violence, forced labor supported by the state, as well as forced separation of children from their parents.

Liu Pengyu then said that the authorities were fighting terrorism, radicalization and separatism, and that the measures taken did not concern human rights and religion. He also suggested that the data about the Uyghur base was fake.

The Chinese Communist Party annexed the Xinjiang region in 1949. Historically, it was home to the Uighurs, an indigenous people of East Turkestan. Unlike the Chinese, who practice Taoism and Buddhism, the Uighurs are Sunni Muslims.

Since 2018, the UN and other Western countries have repeatedly accused Chinese authorities of oppressing them, saying that Uighurs are being sent to labor camps and forced to renounce their religion and language. Beijing has called these claims lies.