China imposes sanctions on 11 US citizens in retaliation
• Dispute over Hong Kong freedoms escalates after White House move
China imposed sanctions on 11 US citizens including legislators, on Monday in response to the US imposition of sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese officials who are accused of curtailing political freedoms in the former British colony.
Among those targeted are senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley and Pat Toomey and representative Chris Smith, and individuals at nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and rights groups.
“In response to that wrong
US behaviour, China has decided to impose sanctions on individuals who have behaved egregiously on Hong Kongrelated issues,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a media briefing on Monday. He did not specify what the sanctions entail.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply in recent months over issues ranging from trade to Hong Kong and China’s handling of the novel coronavirus.
The sanctions on the 11 US citizens are the latest in a tit-for-tat round of measures between China and the US over accusations of rights abuses and interference.
The US on Friday imposed sanctions on Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam as well as the city’s current and former police chiefs, under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. They freeze all US assets owned by those people and generally bar Americans from doing business with them.
The US legislators targeted by China on Monday have been vocal critics of a new national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in late June, expanding its authority in the financial hub. Sanctions had been announced in July against Cruz, Rubio, Smith and other US officials after the US penalised senior Chinese officials over the treatment of Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region.
Beijing’s latest measure includes sanctions against the heads of five US-based NGOs — the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Freedom House and Human Rights Watch.
All five groups had been subjected to sanctions in December in connection with their position on Hong Kong.