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On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry added Seimas member Dovilė Šakalienė and three Lithuanian diplomats to the sanctions list.
Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that, in addition to Mr Šakalienė, the Chinese authorities have also included Aušra Semaškienė, who works at the Lithuanian Permanent Representation to the European Union.
“Since sanctions for spouses have also been introduced, there are actually more Lithuanian citizens who are subject to sanctions. We have four people in total, three of them are Lithuanian diplomats,” said the minister visiting Brussels.
The spouses of D. Šakalienė and A. Semaškienė work in the diplomatic service.
Paradoxically, a billion dollar state chooses to intimidate a citizen of a small country rather than stop illegally imprisoning and torturing a million of its own citizens.
Beijing imposed sanctions on 10 Europeans in response to European Union sanctions against Chinese officials for persecuting the Uighur minority.
The blacklist also includes several MEPs, members of the Belgian and Dutch parliaments and researchers. They are prohibited from entering China.
“The Foreign Ministry will immediately invite the Chinese ambassador to protest the action. Elected Lithuanian officials and diplomats working for the Lithuanian state should not be included in the sanctions, unlike people who can demonstrate their contribution to forced labor. in China, ”said G. Landsbergis.
Social Democrat D. Šakalienė told BNS that this move from Beijing shows that China is affected by the EU’s principled position.
The politician belongs to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and is one of 40 co-chairs.
“It is paradoxical that a billion dollar state chooses to intimidate a citizen of a small country rather than stop illegally imprisoning and torturing a million citizens of their country. And yet such a sudden reaction by the Communist Party of China to the EU sanctions announced today against high-ranking Chinese officials directly involved in massive systemic crimes against humanity attests to the fact that China is affected by our position of principles, “said the Seimas member.
“Both the testimonies of fugitive political prisoners and the years of systematic work and evidence gathered by scientists show that China’s Uighur genocide will not stop unless there is a strong international response. My work at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China o criticisms of human rights violations are based on publicly available information from reliable international sources, ”added D. Šakalienė.
European Union officials recently agreed to impose sanctions on four Chinese officials for persecuting the Uighurs.
Human rights defenders say that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkish-speaking Muslims are being held in so-called re-education camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. China is also accused of using forced labor and forcibly sterilizing women in Xinjiang.
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