A member of Uighur minority demonstrates against the oppression of his people
Britain is set to join with international partners in taking tough new measures on China over alleged human rights abuses against its Uighur minority.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, will make a statement to the Commons on human rights at 3.30pm. He is expected to unveil a raft of ‘Magnitsky’ sanctions against Chinese officials in response to reports of the regime’s grave mistreatment of Uighur Muslims in the northwestern province of Xinjiang.
His intervention will come after the European Union announced its own slate of sanctions against Chinese officials, while reports suggest the US and Canada are also set to declare an array of fresh sanctions within hours, as part of a coordinated international effort.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in advance of Mr Raab’s update to MPs: “We have been clear the situation in Xinjiang is beyond the pale. The reported abuses – which include torture, forced labour and forced sterilisation of women – are extreme and they are extensive.
“It’s important that the international community, working together, sends a clear message that this will not go unanswered.”
It is set to be the first time that the Government’s Magnitsky powers, which target individuals and organisations responsible for human rights abuses in foreign states, have been levied against Chinese nationals.
The absence so far of Chinese officials from the blacklist, which includes Russians and Saudis, has drawn criticism from senior Tory China hawks.
Mr Raab’s statement comes ahead of a vote this evening on a Tory-led amendment to the Trade Bill which aims to create a judicial committee to determine if acts ongoing in Xinjiang constitute genocide.
His expected intervention is viewed by Conservative China hawks as a bid to dampen the rebellion against the Government tonight, but has been welcomed by them.
The UK’s move has been timed to align with the decision by EU foreign ministers to formally blacklist Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
It is the bloc’s first raft of sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Xu Guixiang, a deputy spokesperson for the Xinjiang regional government, drinks from a cup near a slide refuting claims of genocide during a press conference in Beijing, China, in 2020. He has denied Beijing has imposed coercive birth control measures among Muslim minority women
Credit: AP
The travel bans and asset freezes on four Chinese officials and one entity are the second time Brussels has used the “EU Magnitsky Act” to hit human rights abusers, after it was used for the first time on March 2 against Russian officials over the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime also bans people and entities in the EU from giving funds to those targeted by its measures. It allows the bloc to impose sanctions anywhere in the world but can only be aimed at individuals rather than the economies of countries.
The four Chinese politicians and officials were named for their role in overseeing the large-scale detention, surveillance and indoctrination of the Uighers.
Zhu Hailun, former deputy head of the 13th People’s Congress of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Wang Junzheng, another Xinjiang politician, and director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau Wang Mingshan were also listed. Chen Mingguo, who took over the security bureau in January, was also named in the EU list.
May 2019: This photo reportedly shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan, in China's northwestern Xinjiang region
Credit: Getty
China immediately hit back with retaliatory sanctions against 10 Europeans and four European entities, including German MEPs Reinhard Butikofer and Michael Gahler, French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk, and Slovakian MEP Miriam Lexmann
Legislators in Belgium and Lithuania, as well as scholars from Germany and Sweden, were also designated by Beijing.
The entities sanctioned were the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark.
The individuals sanctioned, and their families, have been banned from Hong Kong, Macao, or mainland China. The individuals, as well as companies and institutions associated with them, are also restricted from doing business with China, it was announced.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed the group “severely harm China’s sovereignty and interests, and maliciously spread lies and disinformation”.
“The Chinese side urges the EU side to reflect on itself, face squarely the severity of its mistake and redress it… It must end the hypocritical practice of double standards and stop going further down the wrong path. Otherwise, China will resolutely make further reactions,” the spokesperson added.
The EU also imposed sanctions on 11 people for the military coup staged in Myanmar on Feb 1 and the following crackdown on demonstrators, as Brussels hit 15 people and organisations around the world with sanctions,
Ten of the 11 belong to the highest ranks of the military, including the Tatmadaw’s commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, and deputy-commander-in-chief, Soe Win. The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans.
Officials in Chechnya were also listed for repression and torture of LGBTI people and political opponents.
Other people were targeted for repression in North Korea, murders and disappearances in Libya and torture, and extrajudicial killings in South Sudan and Eritrea.
Hungary’s foreign minister said the sanctions against Myanmar and China were "harmful" and "pointless", despite the fact that all EU sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states, including Budapest, to be levied.
The EU list, which names the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau as a sanctioned entity, did not list Chen Quanguo, who is the top Communist party official in Xinjiang. He was hit by US sanctions last year.
Ahead of Mr Raab speaking in the Commons, Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the unveiling of UK sanctions against Chinese officials over alleged abuses in Xinjiang would be a victory for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac).
Ipac boasts members from the legislatures of 19 different countries. “Through a genuinely cross-party campaign in the UK and in Europe by the parliamentary members of Ipac, we have dragged the Government into matching the actions of our neighbours,” Sir Iain said.
He urged Tory colleagues to back the so-called genocide amendment to the Trade Bill tonight.
Luke de Pulford, coordinator of Ipac, said: “Coming so soon before the vote on the Genocide Amendment, even a casual observer can see that this step is an attempt to buy off support in tonight’s vote.
"Nevertheless, today’s actions are a major victory for us in seeking to hold the Chinese government to account for the genocide perpetrated against the Uighurs.”
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