US Slaps Sanctions On 2 Chinese Officials Over Human Rights Abuse In Tibet

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on two senior Chinese officials. (Represent)

Washington:

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on two senior Chinese officials for “severe human rights abuses” in Tibet, including alleged torture and murder of prisoners and forced sterilization. painting.

The US has frozen any US assets and criminalized dealings with Wu Yingjie, China’s boss in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, China’s police chief in Himalaya region since 2018, who is said to be still in power.

The sanctions announcement comes despite a relative easing of tensions between the United States and China since President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping met last month in Bali and agreed to intensify dialogue.

“Our actions continue to aim to circumvent and prevent the People’s Republic of China’s arbitrary detention and physical abuse of members of religious minorities in the Autonomous Region. Tibet,” Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that Wu had directed a policy of “stabilization” in Tibet that included “severe human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arrest, etc. arbitrary detention and mass detention”.

“Additional abuses during Wu’s tenure included forced sterilization, forced abortions, restrictions on religious and political freedoms, and torture of prisoners.”

Zhang has engaged in abuses including torturing and killing prisoners through running detention centers across Tibet, it said.

China has ruled the predominantly Buddhist region with an iron fist since 1951 when it sent troops in what it called “peaceful liberation”. The region’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India in 1959 amid an aborted uprising.

In recent years, international attention has increasingly focused on Xinjiang to northern Tibet, where the United States says China is carrying out a policy of genocide against Uighurs and Chinese-speaking people. Turkey, mainly Muslim.

As part of a series of sanctions on Friday, the United States also targeted North Korean border guards on firing orders when they saw citizens fleeing into China and Russia.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)