Beijing blasts US bans over Uighur rights violations

China has hit back at the Trump administration’s move to blacklist another 28 Chinese companies.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on China to ‘immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang’. Picture: AP

China has hit back at the Trump administration’s move to blacklist another 28 Chinese companies and local government departments doing business in Xinjiang over concerns on human rights ­violations in the treatment of ­Uighur Muslims, accusing Washington of interfering in its internal affairs.

“By taking this move, the US ­violates the basic norms governing international relations, interferes with China’s internal affairs and undermines China’s interests,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang.

He said China “deplored” and firmly opposed the moves that were announced by the US Commerce Department this week, days before a visit to Washington by Chinese trade negotiators led by Vice-Premier Liu He.

The department said 28 extra Chinese companies and business entities would be blacklisted from buying US products — 20 public sec­urity bureaus in Xinjiang and eight technology companies, including video surveillance specialists Hikvision and Zhejiang Dahua Xinjiang.

The new entities were identified as playing a role in the “brutal suppression” of Muslims in China.

The US also clamped new visa restrictions on certain Chinese ­officials it accuses of being ­“responsible for, or complicit in the detention or abuse of ­Uighurs, ­Kazakhs or other members of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Chinese government had “initiated a highly ­repressive campaign” against ­Uighurs and other Muslim groups in the Xinjiang autonomous ­region, including “mass detentions in internment camps”.

He said the US called on 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”.

China rejects the description of the camps as “re-education camps”, saying they are aimed at ­deradicalising potential terrorists.

“The measures China has taken are preventive ones that aim to counter terrorism and achieve deradicalisation, which has nothing to do with human rights or religions,” Mr Geng said.

“We urge the US to immediately correct its wrong practice, ­repeal its decision and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” he said.

“China will continue to take firm and strong measures to resolutely defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.”

Chinese officials say the measures taken in Xinjiang have succeeded in preventing terrorist attacks in the area in recent years, helping to boost its local economy and allowing increased tourism to the area.

The US moves are the latest in a long list of international actions and criticisms of China’s policy in Xinjiang, where an estimated million Uighurs have been detained.

In July, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was “deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, including the use of detention ­facilities”.

She said she had raised concerns during her visit to China last year and on other occasions with Chinese officials.

Australia was also one of 22 signatories to a letter to the president of the Human Rights Council and the UN High Commission for Human Rights in July that called for an end to mass arbitrary detention in Xinjiang.

China hit back at the sig­natories, accusing them of smearing China, “blatantly politicising the issue of human rights” and interfering in China’s internal affairs.