China sanctions two Americans over Tibet human rights controversy

People wearing Tibetan flags gathering during a protest in Columbia university in New York on Nov 28, 2022. PHOTO: AFP

BEIJING - China has sanctioned two Americans in retaliation for US sanctions against two Chinese officials over human rights in Tibet earlier in December, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

Anti-sanctions measures against historian, Dr Miles Yu, and Mr Todd Stein, deputy staff director with the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will take effect from Friday, according to an order signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and announced on a ministry social media account on Friday.

China will freeze all Chinese assets of Dr Yu and Mr Stein, and ban any organisation or individual within China from engaging with them. Both men and their family members are also banned from entering China.

According to the order, the Chinese measures are in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on two Chinese officials by the United States in December over human rights issues in the Chinese western frontier region of Tibet.

On Dec 9, the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Mr Wu Yingjie, who was the Chinese Communist Party chief in Tibet between 2016 and 2021, and Mr Zhang Hongbo, a senior public security official in the region.

Chinese authorities have been accused of harsh policies to quell ethnic dissent and control religious activities in Tibet - accusations that China dismisses.

Condemning the US sanctions on the two officials, China’s foreign ministry had said then that they “grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs, blatantly violates basic norms in international relations and gravely undermines China-US relations”. REUTERS

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