Washington sanctions Chinese organizations that repress Uighurs

The United States punishes Beijing in its crackdown on the Uyghurs. Washington has placed 28 blacklisted government and trade organizations in China, accusing them of being involved in the authorities' crackdown on the Muslim Uyghur minority, the US Commerce Department said in a statement on Monday (October 7th).

"The US government and the Commerce Department can not and will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities across China," said US Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross, quoted in the statement.

This US decision comes just days before the resumption of negotiations between Beijing and Washington to reach a comprehensive trade agreement to end the impasse in the war tariffs that have been committed for over a year the first two world powers.

"Defenseless minority populations"

These organizations are denied the opportunity to import products from the United States. "This will ensure that our technologies (...) are not used to suppress defenseless minority populations," said Wilbur Ross.

The US government indicates that eight of these organizations are commercial entities, the others being government groups, including the Public Security Bureau in Xinjiang, northwestern China, where they are interned in camps up to million Muslims, mainly ethnic Uyghur, according to experts and human rights organizations.

Pressure on Beijing

"These entities have all been involved in the establishment of the Chinese campaign of repression, arbitrary mass detention and high-tech surveillance," the statement said.

Among the targeted business entities are the company specializing in Hikvision video surveillance and artificial intelligence companies Megvii Technology and SenseTime, according to an official document to be released Wednesday.

Megvii said in a statement that he was "firmly" opposed to a US decision "without any basis in fact". The company defended its "positive impact on society".

Last month, the US Senate passed a bill to increase pressure on China, with a threat of sanctions, to put an end to "human rights violations."

With AFP