The Trump administration is considering deep concern against Chinese senior officials and companies to punish Beijing’s detention of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighurs and other minority Muslims in large internment camps, according to current and former American officials.
Trump administration are taking action against China by possible economic penalties for the first time as they violated human rights. United States officials are also seeking to limit American sales of surveillance technology that Chinese security agencies and companies are using to monitor Uighurs throughout northwest China.
Until now, President Trump has largely resisted punishing China for its human rights record, or even accusing it of widespread violations. If approved, the penalties would fuel an already bitter standoff with Beijing over trade and pressure on North Korea’s nuclear program.
Nauert admitted that at the end of August, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers sent a letter to the State Department asking the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to impose sanctions on a number of Chinese officials accused of overseeing the policies. Those included Chen Quanguo, Communist party chief in Xinjiang and also a member of the party’s politburo.
Under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law, US sanctions could be imposed that permits the US government to target human rights violators across the world with freezes on any US assets, US travel bans, and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them.
> Shiuly Rina
