Beijing said on Friday it will impose reciprocal measures in response to US sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing that the US action represented serious interference in China’s affairs and was deeply detrimental to bilateral relations.
On Thursday, Washington blacklisted Xinjiang region’s Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, a member of China’s Politburo, and three other officials. A senior administration representative described Chen as the highest ranking Chinese official ever sanctioned by the United States, Reuters said.
China’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Chen Xu, told the UN Human Rights Council in the Swiss city on July 1 that Beijing categorically rejects “groundless accusations against China on the Hong Kong and Xinjiang issues” made by some countries due to “political motives.”