Britain announces sanctions against China over Uighur abuses

Britain has joined with the US, Canada and the European Union to announce a raft of sanctions on Chinese officials accused of “appalling” human rights violations against the Uighurs.

Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, unveiled the designations in the Commons, as he branded the mistreatment of Uighur Muslims in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang “one of the worst human rights crises of our time”.

The international community “cannot simply look the other way” from the largest mass detention of an ethnic or religious group since the Second World War, he insisted.

He announced asset freezes and travel bans on four senior Chinese politicians and officials over their role in overseeing the large-scale detention, surveillance and indoctrination of the Uighers.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Public Security Bureau, which Mr Raab said was behind “repressive security policies” across the province, was also blacklisted.

The individuals facing sanctions were Wang Mingshan and Chen Mingguo, both connected to the bureau; Zhu Hailun, former deputy head of the 13th People’s Congress of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; and Wang Junzheng, another Xinjiang politician.

Describing the grave abuses suffered by the Uighur minority, Mr Raab told MPs: “Over a million people have been detained without trial, and there are widespread claims of torture and rape in the camps, based on first-hand survivor testimony.

“People are detained for having too many children, for praying too much, for having a beard or wearing a headscarf, for having the wrong thoughts.”

He added that by acting in concert with 29 partner nations, including the EU, the UK and its allies were “sending the clearest message to the Chinese government”.

The number of countries willing to speak out collectively against Beijing has grown from 23 to 39 as evidence of abuse has built up, he noted.

The UK Government plans to continue to pursue constructive dialogue with China where possible, while standing up for the nation’s values.

It is the first time the UK has levied “Magnitsky” sanctions, which target individuals and organisations responsible for gross human rights abuses in foreign states, against Chinese nationals.

The absence of Chinese officials from the blacklist, which includes Russians and Saudis, before now had drawn criticism from senior Tory China hawks.

Mr Raab’s statement came ahead of a vote on Monday evening on a Tory-led amendment to the Trade Bill, which aimed to create a judicial committee to determine if acts ongoing in Xinjiang constitute genocide. The rebels were defeated in a tight vote, which the Government won by a narrow majority of 18.

His intervention has been welcomed by hawkish Conservatives, although some believe it has been brought forward in part to dampen the expected rebellion against the Government on the legislation.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, called the timing of the move “grubby and cynical” and questioned why it had taken Mr Raab so long to act.

Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, asked why Mr Raab appeared reticent to describe China’s actions as “genocide”, to which the minister responded that “the importance of it being determined by a court are well rehearsed”.

Leading China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said that ultimately the “buck stops” with the President of China over the abuse of Uighurs and Tibetans.

The Foreign Secretary’s statement was coordinated with Washington, Ottawa and Brussels.

It is the European Union’s first raft of sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The travel bans and asset freezes are the second time Brussels has used the “EU Magnitsky Act” to hit human rights abusers after it was used for the first time on March 2 against Russian officials over the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime also bans people and entities in the EU from giving funds to those targeted by its measures. It allows the bloc to impose sanctions anywhere in the world but can only be aimed at individuals rather than the economies of countries.

China immediately hit back with retaliatory sanctions against 10 Europeans and four European entities, including German MEPs Reinhard Butikofer and Michael Gahler, French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk, and Slovakian MEP Miriam Lexmann

Legislators in the Netherlands, Belgium and Lithuania, as well as scholars from Germany and Sweden, were also designated by Beijing.

The entities sanctioned were the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union, Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark.

The individuals sanctioned, and their families, have been banned from Hong Kong, Macao, or mainland China. The individuals, as well as companies and institutions associated with them, are also restricted from doing business with China, it was announced.

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed the group “severely harm China's sovereignty and interests, and maliciously spread lies and disinformation”.

“The Chinese side urges the EU side to reflect on itself, face squarely the severity of its mistake and redress it... It must end the hypocritical practice of double standards and stop going further down the wrong path. Otherwise, China will resolutely make further reactions,” the spokesperson added.

The EU also imposed sanctions on 11 people for the military coup staged in Myanmar on Feb 1 and the following crackdown on demonstrators, as Brussels hit 15 people and organisations around the world with sanctions,

Ten of the 11 belong to the highest ranks of the military, including the Tatmadaw's commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, and deputy-commander-in-chief, Soe Win. The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans.

Officials in Chechnya were also listed for repression and torture of LGBTI people and political opponents,

Other people were targeted for repression in North Korea, murders and disappearances in Libya and torture, and extrajudicial killings in South Sudan and Eritrea.

Hungary's foreign minister said that the sanctions against Myanmar and China were "harmful" and "pointless", despite the fact that all EU sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states, including Budapest, to be levied.

The EU list, which names the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau as a sanctioned entity, did not list Chen Quanguo, who is the top Communist party official in Xinjiang. He was hit by US sanctions last year.

Ahead of Mr Raab speaking in the Commons, Sir Iain said the unveiling of UK sanctions against Chinese officials over alleged abuses in Xinjiang was a victory Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac).

Ipac boasts members from the legislatures of 19 different countries. “Through a genuinely cross-party campaign in the UK and in Europe by the parliamentary members of Ipac, we have dragged the Government into matching the actions of our neighbours,” Sir Iain said.

Luke de Pulford, coordinator of Ipac, said: “Even a casual observer can see that this step is an attempt to buy off support in tonight’s vote.

"Nevertheless, today’s actions are a major victory for us in seeking to hold the Chinese government to account for the genocide perpetrated against the Uighurs.”