The Trump administration has said it will impose visa restrictions on Chinese officials accused of involvement in repression of Muslim populations. It follows the decision to
blacklist 28 Chinese organizations linked to allegations of
abuse in the Xinjiang region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Chinese government had instituted "a highly repressive campaign". China has dismissed the allegations as groundless.
In a statement, Pompeo accused the Chinese government of a string of abuses against
Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz Muslims and other minority Muslim
groups. These included "mass detentions in internment camps; pervasive,
high-tech surveillance; draconian controls on expressions of cultural
and religious identities; and coercion of individuals to return from
abroad to an often perilous fate in China".
China has rebuffed the moves. "There
is no such thing as these so-called 'human rights issues' as claimed by
the United States," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. "These accusations are nothing more than an excuse for
the United States to deliberately interfere in China's internal
affairs."
Visa restrictions are to be imposed on Chinese government and Communist Party officials, as well as their family members. "The
United States calls on the People's Republic of China to immediately
end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those
arbitrarily detained, and cease efforts to coerce members of Chinese
Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an
uncertain fate," the State Department said.
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