This week, US and Chinese representatives want to meet for talks. A solution in the commercial dispute is her. Only days before, however, it has now come to new upheavals - at the diplomatic level. The US imposed sanctions on Chinese government officials and party officials on Tuesday. Now China is responding with sharp criticism.
The Chinese Embassy in the US said via Twitter that these steps violated the basic norms of international relations. Washington uses human rights as "merely fabricated pretexts for its interference" in Beijing's internal affairs. "We urge the US to correct its mistakes immediately and stop its interference in China's internal affairs."
With the excuse of human rights, the US side has issued a complaint on Chinese officials, after a few comments on Chinese officials and after yesterday. It seriously violates the basic norms governing international ... 1/4
- Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) October 8, 2019The US government imposed visa restrictions on Chinese government and Communist Party officials and blacklisted 28 Chinese government and trade organizations to restrict exports to them.
The rationale for the punitive measures: The companies involved were involved in human rights violations against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the autonomous region of Xinjiang in northwestern China.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch estimates that in Xinjiang, one million people live in reeducation camps, most of them Uighurs. They are ethnically related to the Turks and feel oppressed by the ruling Han Chinese.
The Beijing government accuses Uighur groups of separatism and terrorism. With regard to the alleged re-education camps, China has in the past referred to "educational centers" that served to fight Islamist radicalization. The Chinese Embassy also said on Twitter that the measures in Xinjiang aimed to eradicate the ground for terrorism and extremism. The problems alleged by the USA do not exist.
The US and China have been fiercely engaged in a trade dispute for more than a year. The next round of negotiations begins in Washington on Thursday.
