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Xinjiang: US adds more Chinese officials and companies to sanctions list
- Washington says it has frozen the assets of a former prefectural police chief and a United Front Work Department cadre
- Beijing says the action amounts to gross interference in China’s internal affairs
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The United States has sanctioned another two Chinese officials over alleged links to human rights abuses against Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in the far western region of Xinjiang.
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The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said on Friday that the sanctions applied to Gao Qi, a former police chief at the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture in northern Xinjiang, and Hu Lianhe, an official from the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department responsible for shaping ideology and ensuring social stability in the region.
The office said it had frozen the officials’ US assets and barred any “US person” or anyone located in the US from dealing with the property unless they had permission from the office – permission that is hard to obtain.
Financial institutions and other people who provide money or goods to Gao or Hu could also attract secondary sanctions.
On the same day, the US State Department banned Gao and Hu from entry to the United States.
The sanctions were the latest of a string of measures from the US to punish Chinese companies and individuals allegedly involved in the persecution of Uygur people and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang.
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