China vows to respond to latest US sanctions – Reuters
Beijing has urged Washington to drop sanctions and stop acting as a ‘world policeman’
China has condemned a new round of US sanctions targeting officials for alleged rights abuses in the Tibet region, saying the “illegal” the sanctions are just a pretext to meddle in Beijing’s internal affairs.
Asked about the latest round of sanctions imposed last Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the move “grossly interferes” in the affairs of his country and “seriously harms” relations with the United States, adding that China would take “effective and resolute measures” in response.
“The United States has imposed illegal sanctions on Chinese officials under domestic law and under the guise of so-called human rights issues in Tibet,” he told reporters on Monday. “Tibet-related affairs are purely China’s internal affairs and do not tolerate any interference from any other country.”
The United States does not have the right to impose unwarranted sanctions on other countries and is not in a position to act as a “world policeman”. We urge the United States to immediately withdraw its so-called sanctions.
The US Treasury last week announced a wave of new sanctions against 40 people in nine countries to mark “International Human Rights Day”, including current and former officials in North Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala , Guinea, Iran, Mali, China, Russia and the Philippines. Two Chinese nationals, Wu Yingjie and Zhang Hongbo, were targeted “Abuse of human rights” in the Tibet Autonomous Region, where the Treasury said the government carried out arbitrary detentions and other violations in an effort to “restrict religious freedoms”.
Coinciding with the sanctions, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns also issued a statement criticizing Beijing for its “repressive” policies in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions, as well as in Hong Kong, even suggesting that the government was engaged “crimes against humanity” against Muslim minorities. However, Wang dismissed the criticism as “unjustified,” instead ask Washington to reflect on its own past abuses and “fix its poor record first.”
Burns statement “fully reveals the hegemonic, authoritarian and intimidating nature of the United States and its political agenda of using human rights issues as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine stability, development and China’s ethnic solidarity”, continued the spokesperson, adding that the United States had “turned a blind eye to his own human rights violations” both at home and abroad.
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