United States Adds Sanctions for Internment of Muslims in China


“Today’s appointments are the latest move by the United States government in a continuing effort to deter abuse of human rights in the Xinjiang region,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the most vocal of the Falcons of China.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp was founded in 1954 as a group intertwined with the People’s Liberation Army that would oversee the deployment of large numbers of Han ethnic citizens, many of them military veterans, to Xinjiang to build farms, factories and villages that They would allow China to consolidate control of the important border region and the many ethnic minority groups there. As of 2009, the group, which reports directly to Beijing, had an annual output of goods and services of $ 7 billion, and settlements and entities overseen by the bingtuan body, or soldiers, included five cities, 180 communities agricultural and 1,000 companies. They also run their own courts, universities, and media organizations.

On July 9, the United States imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials associated with Xinjiang’s policy, including Chen Quanguo, the region’s party chief and 25-member Politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party. That move was largely symbolic, but it sent a stronger message than an October 2019 action in which the administration placed 28 Chinese companies and police departments deemed to be associated with the Xinjiang abuses on a blacklist that prohibits to US companies to sell technology and other products. unlicensed At that time, the State Department also announced visa restrictions for some Chinese officials.

On July 20, the Trump government added 11 new Chinese entities to the list, including companies supplying major American brands like Apple, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, and said the companies were complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang. That brought to 48 the total number of Chinese companies and security units on the list of US entities for Xinjiang-related violations.

On July 1, the administration warned companies with supply chains that traverse Xinjiang to consider the reputational, economic and legal risks of doing so.

The Associated Press reported on July 3 that agents from the United States Customs and Border Protection Office in New York had seized 13 tons of hair tissue and other beauty products suspected of being made by detainees at an internment camp in Xinjiang. The products were worth an estimated $ 800,000. In May, the agency seized similar products that were being imported by companies in Georgia and Texas, to be sold to salons and individuals across the United States.