China said it will impose retaliatory sanctions against a group of U.S. citizens after the Trump administration slapped penalties on 11 key government officials involved in implementing the Chinese Communist Party’s “national security law” in Hong Kong.
Eleven people, including lawmakers, were targeted, but not anybody from the Trump administration.
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey; Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth; National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman; and Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, will all be subject to sanctions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian announced at a briefing in Beijing on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.
“In response to the U.S.’s wrong behaviors, China has decided to impose sanctions on those individuals who behaved badly on Hong Kong-related issues,” Zhao said. He did not specify what form the sanctions will take.
Tensions between the United States and China have been on the rise after the Trump administration announced sanctions last month, including the denial of travel visas, aimed at Chinese Communist Party officials who the U.S. believes have been involved in carrying out human rights abuses against Uighurs and other minorities in China.
Afterward, China said it was going to sanctions U.S. officials, including some of the U.S. lawmakers mentioned in Zhao’s list Monday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in mid-July that China would be imposing “corresponding sanctions” against Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, Cruz, Rubio, Smith, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
The State Department dismissed those charges, saying that “these threats will not deter us” from holding China accountable for its oppression of the Uighurs.
“The United States is committed to holding accountable those involved in human rights abuses around the world, including those responsible for the human rights crisis in Xinjiang, China,” a State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner at the time. “Beijing’s July 13 announcement to impose retaliatory sanctions on U.S. government officials and organizations who have worked tirelessly to expose the PRC’s human rights abuses further demonstrates the CCP’s refusal to take responsibility for its actions.”
