Current:Home > StocksChina sanctions a US research firm and 2 individuals over reports on human rights abuses in Xinjiang-LoTradeCoin
China sanctions a US research firm and 2 individuals over reports on human rights abuses in Xinjiang
View Date:2024-12-23 23:44:53
BEIJING (AP) — China says it is banning a United States research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups native to the country’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as announcing late Tuesday night that Los Angeles-based research and data analytics firm Kharon, its director of investigations, Edmund Xu, and Nicole Morgret, a human rights analyst affiliated with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, would be barred from traveling to China. Also, any assets or property they have in China will be frozen and organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from making transactions or otherwise cooperating with them.
In a statement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, Mao said the sanctions against the company, Xu and Morgret were retaliation for a yearly U.S. government report on human rights in Xinjiang. Uyghurs and other natives of the region share religious, linguistic and cultural links with the scattered peoples of Central Asia and have long resented the Chinese Communist Party’s heavy-handed control and attempts to assimilate them with the majority Han ethnic group.
In a paper published in June 2022, Morgret wrote, “The Chinese government is undertaking a concerted drive to industrialize the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which has led an increasing number of corporations to establish manufacturing operations there. This centrally-controlled industrial policy is a key tool in the government’s efforts to forcibly assimilate Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples through the institution of a coerced labor regime.”
Such reports draw from a wide range of sources, including independent media, non-governmental organizations and groups that may receive commercial and governmental grants or other outside funding.
China has long denied such allegations, saying the large-scale network of prison-like facilities through which passed hundreds of thousands of Muslim citizens were intended only to rid them of violent, extremist tendencies and teach them job skills. Former inmates describe harsh conditions imposed without legal process and demands that they denounce their culture and sing the praises of President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party daily.
China says the camps are all now closed, but many of their former inmates have reportedly been given lengthy prison sentences elsewhere. Access to the region by journalists, diplomats and others is tightly controlled, as is movement outside the region by Uyghurs, Kazaks and other Muslim minorities.
“By issuing the report, the United States once again spread false stories on Xinjiang and illegally sanctioned Chinese officials and companies citing so-called human rights issues,” Mao was quoted as saying.
“If the United States refuses to change course, China will not flinch and will respond in kind,” Mao was quoted as telling reporters at an earlier news briefing.
The U.S. has slapped visa bans and a wide range of other sanctions on dozens of officials from China and the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong, including the country’s former defense minister, who disappeared under circumstances China has yet to explain. China’s foreign minister also was replaced this year with no word on his fate, fueling speculation that party leader and head of state for life Xi is carrying out a purge of officials suspected of collaborating with foreign governments or simply showing insufficient loyalty to China’s most authoritarian leader since Mao Zedong.
Hong Kong’s government has cracked down heavily on freedom of speech and democracy since China imposed a sweeping national security law in response to massive anti-government protests in 2019.
Neither Xu or Morgret could immediately be reached for comment, and it wasn’t clear what degree of connection, if any, they had with the U.S. government.
veryGood! (6411)
Related
- US Election Darkens the Door of COP29 as It Opens in Azerbaijan
- More nature emojis could be better for biodiversity
- Catholics in Sacramento and worldwide celebrate Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe
- Where is Kremlin foe Navalny? His allies say he has been moved but they still don’t know where
- Who's hosting 'SNL' tonight? Musical guest, start time, where to watch Nov. 9 episode
- Minnesota man reaches plea deal for his role in fatal carjacking in Minneapolis
- The Supreme Court refuses to block an Illinois law banning some high-power semiautomatic weapons
- Big Bang Theory actress Kate Micucci says she had surgery for lung cancer despite never smoking a cigarette
- Bill on school bathroom use by transgender students clears Ohio Legislature, heads to governor
- Lily Gladstone on Oscar-bound 'Killers of the Flower Moon': 'It's a moment for all of us'
Ranking
- Brush fire erupts in Brooklyn's iconic Prospect Park amid prolonged drought
- Police search for man suspected of trying to abduct 3 different women near University of Arizona campus
- Who is Easton Stick? What to know about the Chargers QB replacing injured Justin Herbert
- Captains of smuggling boat that capsized off California, killing 3, sentenced to federal prison
- Birth control and abortion pill requests have surged since Trump won the election
- Planned After School Satan Club sparks controversy in Tennessee
- Israel's war with Hamas rages as Biden warns Netanyahu over indiscriminate bombing in Gaza
- How will college football's postseason unfold? Our expert picks for all 41 bowl games.
Recommendation
-
'Yellowstone' premiere: Record ratings, Rip's ride and Billy Klapper's tribute
-
How to watch 'Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God,' the docuseries everyone is talking about
-
Planned After School Satan Club sparks controversy in Tennessee
-
How to watch 'Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God,' the docuseries everyone is talking about
-
2025 NFL Draft order: Updated first round picks after Week 10 games
-
Shooting of Palestinian college students came amid spike in gun violence in Vermont
-
Vanessa Hudgens' Husband Cole Tucker Proves They're All in This Together in Birthday Tribute
-
Biden. Rolling Stones. Harrison Ford. Why older workers are just saying no to retirement
Like
- Judith Jamison, a dancer both eloquent and elegant, led Ailey troupe to success over two decades
- Liberian-flagged cargo ship hit by projectile from rebel-controlled Yemen, set ablaze, official says
- JetBlue pilot says he took off quickly to avoid head-on crash with incoming plane: I hope you don't hit us