Beijing imposes sanctions on US, Canadian citizens over Uighurs

The move is in retaliation for the sanctions imposed last week by Canada and the US.

Justin Trudeau said the sanctions were ‘an attack on transparency and freedom of expression’. Picture: AFP

China has announced tit-for-tat sanctions against two Americans, a Canadian and a rights advocacy body in response to sanctions imposed last week by the two countries over Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs.

Two members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, as well as Canadian MP Michael Chong, and a Canadian parliamentary committee on human rights, are prohibited from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Sunday AEDT.

Mr Chong reacted by calling the sanctions a “badge of honour”. “We’ve got a duty to call out China for its crackdown in #HongKong & its genocide of #Uyghurs,” he tweeted. “We who live freely in democracies under the rule of law must speak for the voiceless.”

At least a million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in northwestern Xinjiang, and authorities have been accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

The EU, Britain, Canada and the US sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic hierarchy last week in co-ordinated action over the allegations, prompting retaliation from Beijing in the form of sanctions on individuals from the EU and Britain.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the sanctions were “an attack on transparency and freedom of expression”. “We will continue to defend human rights around the world with our international partners,” he tweeted.

AFP