- European Union foreign ministers have agreed to sanction Chinese officials for human rights abuses.
- Sanctions will be imposed on China due to abuses perpetrated on the country’s Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
- This will be the first time China has been sanctioned since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
BRUSSELS, Belgium: In a rare move, European Union foreign ministers have agreed to sanction Chinese officials for human rights abuses.
This will be the first time since 1989, following the Tiananmen Square crackdown, that the EU has sanctioned China.
The EU will put in place a travel ban and freeze of assets of four Chinese officials and one agency, all of whom will be identified later.
The EU sanctions on China stem from the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang. U.N. representatives say some 1 million Muslims are being detained in camps throughout the area.
China has acknowledged the roundup of Muslims, placing them in”deradicalization centers” in a fight against extremism.
The U.S. has labeled the situation a “genocide,”, as has the Dutch parliament.
In response, China’s ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, said the camps holding Muslims in China are “not entirely different” from those found in Britain, France and the U.S.
In a warning, Zhang Ming said,”sanctions based on lies could be interpreted as a deliberate attack on China’s security and development.”
