Topline
The State Department will impose visa restrictions on Chinese government officials it believes are complicit in the repression of minority groups, dissidents and activists in China or in the U.S., Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, the latest in a series of sanctions and blacklistings that has escalated U.S.-Chinese tensions.
A Chinese military band conductor at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Key Facts
The U.S. will use diplomatic and economic means to “promote accountability” for human rights abuses, such as alleged efforts by Chinese officials to “harass, intimidate, surveil and abduct” members of minority groups, including some individuals who had sought shelter in the U.S., Blinken said.
Blinken also demanded China not deny the families of Uyghur American activists permission to leave China, which he characterized as a form of “transnational repression.”
Though Blinken Monday principally emphasized the repression of Uyghurs, he said visa restrictions would also be directed at officials involved in the persecution of other ethnic and religious minorities, dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and labor organizers either in China or abroad.
The State Department did not name which Chinese officials would be affected by the new restrictions.
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China’s embassy in the U.S., said that by imposing restrictions on Chinese officials the U.S. had violated international norms and interfered in China’s internal affairs, and said that China would take “firm and forceful measures” to defend its national sovereignty.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels, Belgium on March 4, 2022.
Key Background
In 2019, the Trump Administration imposed visa restrictions against some Chinese officials, citing abuses against the predominantly Muslim Ugyhur ethnic group in the Xinjiang region of Western China. In January 2021, the Trump Administration State Department accused the Chinese government of perpetrating genocide against Uyghurs, as well as other atrocities including forced sterilizations, forced abortions and forced marriages to non-Uyghurs. In December, the U.S. imposed sweeping human rights-related sanctions against Chinese officials and placed Chinese companies including AI company SenseTime on an investment blacklist. Less than two weeks later, the Chinese government banned four members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from visiting China and prohibited Chinese organizations and individuals from engaging with them. U.S.-Chinese relations have also been tested by China’s unwillingness to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. March 14, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. would “absolutely” impose consequences on China if it aided Russia in escaping sanctions imposed over the invasion. Diplomatic tensions increased further Wednesday when the DOJ charged five people with allegedly stalking and harassing Chinese nationals living in New York City and elsewhere. Prosecutors allege defendant Qiming Lin, 59, of China tried to sabotage the Congressional campaign of a U.S. military veteran who previously participated in pro-democracy protests in China, remarking that an associate should “beat him until he cannot run for election” or perhaps stage a car accident. Other defendants were accused of offenses ranging from bugging the vehicle of a dissident artist to attempting to bribe an Internal Revenue Service employee to obtain a dissident activist’s tax returns. Chinese officials denied that the Chinese government was involved in this or any other alleged illegal scheme abroad.
Tangent
In February, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and Denmark staged a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics due to concerns over the treatment of Uyghurs, dissidents and other groups. The boycott found support among 46% of Americans, while 22% opposed it and 31% were uncertain, according to Pew Research Center polling.
Further Reading
“Feds Accuse China Of Campaign To Intimidate Critics In U.S.” (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/03/21/us-will-restrict-visas-for-chinese-officials-involved-in-uyghur-repression-blinken-says/