Uyghurs: China sanctions American and Canadian personalities
The Canadian Conservative MP considers the Chinese sanction to be an “honorary distinction”.
AP - Sean Kilpatrick
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
China announced this Saturday, March 27, targeted sanctions against Canadian and American personalities and entities, in response to the sanctions imposed earlier this week by these countries in the face of the treatment of its Uyghur minority.
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The sanctions announced by Beijing target two members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Gayle Manchin and Tony Perkins, Canadian MP Michael Chong and a Canadian parliamentary commission on human rights.
All are banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, China's foreign ministry said.
They are also prohibited from doing business with Chinese citizens and institutions.
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Also to listen: The Uyghurs, a people under high totalitarian surveillance
Michael Chong reacted on Twitter, claiming to consider the Chinese sanction as an "
honorary distinction
".
“
We have a duty to hold China to account for its repression in Hong Kong and its genocide of the Uyghurs.
We who live freely in democracies, under a rule of law, must be the voice of those who do not have one
”, added the Conservative MP.
"Otherwise they will burn their fingers"
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the United States and Canada are imposing sanctions "
on the basis of rumors and disinformation
."
The sanctioned officials "
must stop all political manipulation on matters related to Xinjiang, stop meddling in China's internal affairs in any way,
" the ministry said.
"
Otherwise, they will burn their fingers
."
The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada on Monday imposed coordinated sanctions against past and current leaders in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing has imposed drastic police surveillance for several years, and
Beijing immediately retaliated
with sanctions against European and British figures.
According to studies published by American and Australian institutes, rejected by Beijing, at least a million Uyghurs have been interned in
"camps" in Xinjiang
, in northwest China, and some subjected to "forced labor" , especially in cotton fields.
Washington believes that the repression of this Muslim minority constitutes "
genocide
".
(
With
AFP)
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