Relentlessly deploring the violation of human rights and pointing to threats to US national security, the administration of President Joe Biden is stepping up economic sanctions against Chinese interests, contributing to the deterioration of diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Washington announced on Wednesday sanctions targeting five Chinese entities accused of promoting the trafficking of synthetic opiates, responsible for a record number of overdose deaths in the United States.
Beijing lambasted these "non-constructive" measures.
The US Department of Commerce has this time decided to attack Chinese high technology which would be used to violate the rights of Uyghurs.
Human rights groups reported that China was exercising unprecedented surveillance of the Uyghur, mostly Muslim, population in the northwestern Xinjiang region, through DNA research and artificial intelligence operations for facial recognition.
"Scientific research in biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. Unfortunately, the People's Republic of China chooses to use these technologies to control its people and suppress members of ethnic and religious minority groups," lamented the United States Secretary of State. Trade Gina Raimondo, to justify the new sanctions.
Research institutes targeted by the latest US actions include centers focused on blood transfusions, bioengineering and toxicology.
"The United States will continue to firmly oppose the efforts of China and Iran to transform tools contributing to the prosperity of humanity into tools threatening global security and stability," said Gina Raimondo.
A total of 37 entities were added to the list of companies accused of being involved in activities "contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States".
The list includes Chinese companies but also firms from Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, according to the document due to be published in the official gazette on Friday.
Intensification
Concretely, Washington has decided to restrict sensitive exports to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 of its research institutes because of its biotechnology work, including "alleged brain control weapons," he explains. .
Experts, witnesses and the US government claim that more than a million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking Muslims are being held in camps in an attempt to root out their Islamic cultural traditions and forcibly homogenize them.
The United States has called the campaign genocide and, citing human rights concerns, plans to boycott official representation at the Beijing Winter Games next year.
Beijing says these are vocational training centers and that, like many Western countries, the government is seeking to reduce the appeal of radical Islam following deadly attacks.
But the United States is not about to ease the pressure.
They are even expected to soon become the first country to ban all imports from Xinjiang, arguing that labor in the camps is so widespread that it is difficult to separate products that are made under these conditions from other goods.
After lengthy negotiations, Democrats and Republicans, along with the Biden administration, reached an agreement on the Uyghur forced labor prevention law that will ban the importation of all goods from the region, unless there is tangible evidence that the production does not involve forced labor.
Xinjiang is a major source of cotton supply.
The Workers Rights Consortium, which monitors factories, estimates that 20% of clothing imported into the United States each year contains the material from that region.
© 2021 AFP