China sanctions US officials as tensions escalate

Washington: China has sanctioned a group of prominent US senators and officials in retaliation for Washington stepping up its attack over human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

But the US immediately returned fire, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issuing a statement rejecting almost all of China's claims in the South China Sea, exacerbating tensions over one of Asia's most contentious foreign policy issues.

On Monday, US time, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both high-profile critics of China, were officially sanctioned by Beijing, along with two other key officials: State Department ambassador for International Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, and Republican member of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Chris Smith.

The announcement was made by the Chinese Foreign Ministry - days after the US imposed its own sanctions against a number of Beijing officials - but was devoid of detail.

A State Department official told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that the threats would not deter the US from taking "concrete action" to hold Chinese Communist Party officials to account "for their ongoing campaign of human rights abuses against members of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, coercive forced abortions and forced sterilisations, and restrictions on religious and cultural identities".

Tensions are escalating between the US and China.Credit: AP

More than 1 million Muslim Uighurs are being detained in so-called re-education camps, although China has consistently denied wrongdoing.

The Chinese officials sanctioned by the US last week over alleged human rights abuses include Chen Quanguo, a member of China’s 25-member ruling Politburo and party secretary of the Xinjiang region. A number of other officials were also targeted in the decision with visa bans and the freezing of US assets.

Senators Cruz and Rubio, both of whom have long urged the Trump administration to get tougher on China, responded to the Chinese sanctions in sarcastic tweets.

“Bummer. I was going to take my family to Beijing for summer vacation, right after visiting Tehran,” said Cruz.

“The Communist Party of #China has banned me from entering the country. I guess they don’t like me?” tweeted Rubio.

Pompeo's comments on the South China Sea are likely to further escalate tensions.

"We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them," Pompeo said.

The two countries have been at loggerheads over a range of issues, from coronavirus to espionage and the economy.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz is an outspoken critic of China.Credit: AP

The escalations have raised doubts about what is known as the Phase One trade deal between the US and China, under which China had pledged to increase the volume of purchases across numerous sectors in exchange for the rolling back of tariffs on more than $US112 billion ($161.5 billion) worth of goods.

When asked today if the deal remained in place, Trump told reporters: “It’s intact, but I think what China has done to the world with what took place - the China plague … whatever you want to call it, it’s got 20 different names - what they did to the world should not be forgotten." He was likely referring to the coronavirus pandemic which is believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.