China hits back at US officials over Xinjiang ban

China on Monday imposed visa restrictions on some top US officials and politicians in the latest tit-for-tat response to America's move to sanction several Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic minority groups in the Muslimmajority Xinjiang province.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told the media here that the behaviour of the US officials and politicians, and visa ban on some Chinese officials from Uyghur Muslim dominated Xinjiang province "severely damaged China-US relations," and should be condemned.

Hua made the comments in response to US sanctions and visa restrictions on three senior officials of the ruling Chinese Communist Party from Xinjiang for alleged human rights abuses targeting Muslim Uyghurs. China has decided to impose sanctions starting from Monday against US CongressionalExecutive Commission on China (CECC), US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, Congressman Chris Smit and US Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.