The Chinese authorities are ready to take mirror countermeasures against the United States in connection with new US sanctions against Chinese officials. Beijing considers Washington “the world’s biggest human rights violator,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said today.
“We strongly protest against these sanctions, which grossly violate China’s sovereignty,” he said at a briefing.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced new visa restrictions for Chinese officials for their efforts to suppress ethnic and religious minorities both at home and abroad.
In his statement, he repeated his call for China to “end the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity” in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, without providing specific details about which officials would be sanctioned.
Blinken said the visa restrictions would target Chinese officials, those involved in policies aimed at suppressing religious and ethnic minorities, as well as other dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.