“As long as there are atrocities in Xinjiang, the Chinese authorities will have to bear the consequences,” said Andrea Gaki, the official responsible for the Treasury Department’s health program.
Sanctions target Wang Xunzheng, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), director of the Xinjiang Department of Public Security.
The Treasury action is part of a coordinated effort by the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States to increase pressure on Beijing by placing more than one million Xinjiang citizens, mostly Muslim Uygars, in camps with work schedules.
The Treasury stated in a statement that the XPCC is a paramilitary group that enforces strict control of Beijing in Xinjiang with the Department of Public Safety.
Treasury said, “The Chinese government treats almost all expressions of faith as a sign of religious, extremism or ethnic separatism.”
The goals of Beijing’s operations in Xinjiang are often detained and allegedly subjected to various methods of torture and ‘political re-education’.
The restrictions are designed to prevent sanctioned people from doing business with Americans or gaining access to the global financial system.
They can also freeze property under US jurisdiction.
