The Trump administration on Thursday put visa and asset sanctions on several Chinese officials — including Politburo member Chen Quanguo — for what it says has been their role in “gross violations of human rights” in China’s far western region of Xinjiang.
The move comes at a time when U.S.-China relations are at their worst in decades and is likely to anger Beijing, potentially leading to similar sanctions from China on American officials.
Chen, the ruling Communist Party’s top official in Xinjiang, has overseen a harsh persecution of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in the name of combating terrorism since he was posted to the region in 2016. Critics accuse the government of severe rights abuses in Xinjiang, with invasive surveillance, mass extrajudicial detentions, forced sterilization and abortions and mandatory birth control.
The move marked the first time since the U.S. established diplomatic ties with China in 1979 that Washington has sanctioned a member of China’s elite Politburo, comprising the party’s top two dozen officials, say scholars of Chinese politics.
In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Chen and two other Xinjiang officials — the party’s political and legal affairs chief Zhu Hailun and police boss Wang Mingshan — were now ineligible for entry into the United States. Their immediate families were also barred.❑
