China blasts US blacklist over Xinjiang

China hit back at the US on Tuesday over the blacklisting of 28 Chinese entities accused of being implicated in rights violations against mostly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, saying the claims are “groundless.” US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the move to bar the entities, saying his country “cannot and will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic minorities within China.” But Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction” to the blacklist and defended its policy in the western frontier region, where rights groups say more than 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are held in re-education camps.