WASHINGTON — The United States positioned sanctions on high Chinese officers on Monday, as a part of a multinational effort to punish Beijing for human rights abuses towards the largely Muslim Uyghur minority group, which American officers have called a genocide.

The penalties — in coordination with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada — come days after the Biden administration’s heated encounter with Chinese officers in Alaska, and can almost certainly widen tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“Amid growing international condemnation, the P.R.C. continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity” in its western Xinjiang area, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken mentioned in an announcement on Monday, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“The United States reiterates its calls on the P.R.C. to bring an end to the repression of Uyghurs, who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, including by releasing all those arbitrarily held in internment camps and detention facilities,” he added.

The United States imposed penalties on Wang Junzheng, the secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and Chen Mingguo, director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, for their roles in detaining and severely abusing Uyghur Muslims and different ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, the Treasury Department mentioned.

The sanctions have been imposed beneath the Global Magnitsky Act, which permits the manager department to use financial penalties to punish officers of different nations for human rights violations. The motion will freeze any belongings these officers maintain within the United States.

The U.S. transfer got here hours after the European Union, United Kingdom and Canada levied their very own sanctions towards Chinese officers and entities for human rights violations in Xinjiang. The European Union targeted 4 Chinese officers, together with the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau. The United Kingdom and Canada did the identical.

In response to the European Union motion on Monday, Chinese officers imposed sanctions on 10 Europeans, together with members of the European Parliament.

“This move, based on nothing but lies and disinformation, disregards and distorts facts,” a consultant of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement condemning the European Union motion, including that the trouble “grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs” and “severely undermines China-E.U. relations.”

Mr. Blinken mentioned the joint motion is an effort on the a part of the United States to work “multilaterally to advance respect for human rights.” A joint assertion launched by the highest diplomats representing the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, amongst others, demanded that Beijing “end its repressive practices against Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, and to release those arbitrarily detained.”

Two Western allies closely depending on commerce with China — Australia and New Zealand — issued their very own joint statement endorsing the Xinjiang-related sanctions, however stopped in need of saying their very own penalties on Chinese officers.

China’s crackdown on Uyghurs has included pressured sterilizations and sending a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals — if not 1,000,000 or extra — to indoctrination camps meant to instill loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and break down adherence to Islam.

In a separate motion on Monday, the United States announced sanctions in coordination with the European Union that named army officers and different entities in Myanmar for their violent repression of democratic protests.

The U.S. motion towards Beijing appears in keeping with the diplomatic imaginative and prescient set forth by Mr. Blinken and Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, of their first face-to-face assembly with Chinese officers in Alaska final week. Mr. Sullivan mentioned the United States remained “cleareyed” in regards to the challenges that lay forward for the world’s two largest financial and technological powers.

The penalties additionally come on the heels of the Biden administration’s choice to place sanctions on 24 Chinese officials for undermining democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, and are in an identical vein to the Trump administration’s strategy of using sanctions as a method to punish Chinese officers for human rights abuses.

Omer Kanat, the manager director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, praised the coordinated effort by many countries to penalize Chinese officers.

“Unprecedented cooperation between governments like this is how genocide will be brought to an end,” Mr. Kanat mentioned in an announcement on Monday. “This is what Uyghurs have been asking for — the dam has broken and the response has finally begun.”

Ana Swanson contributed reporting.



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