In recent months, the Trump administration has stepped up its rhetoric and aggressive actions against China on all fronts, including suppressing Chinese media entities, targeting Chinese pharmaceuticals and cyber-research and accusing the Chinese government of trying to “remake the world” in its companies. picture.

Pompeo said he “places additional visa restrictions on other CCP officials believed to be responsible for, or involved in, unfair detention or abuse of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang.”

The US Treasury appointed Chen, Zhu and Wang, as well as the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and former Party Secretary Huo Liujun, Thursday.

Under designation, “all property and interests in the property of the entities and individuals mentioned above, and any entity that is owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by them, individually, or with other blocked persons, which located in the United States or having or controlling US people, is blocked and must be reported to OFAC. “

“The United States is committed to using the full power of its finances to hold human rights violators accountable in Xinjiang and throughout the world,” Finance Minister Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Regional experts noted that in the past the US had distanced itself from pursuing CCP officials, making this round of sanctions significant.

“The US often stops targeting Chinese Communist Party officials and in this case you finally see it done,” said Olivia Enos, an expert at the Heritage Foundation. “The person responsible for gross human rights violations is being held accountable. This is huge.”

Chen was the “architect” of the repressive policies carried out by Beijing in Tibet, which then applied to the Xinjiang region and allowed “rapid internment,” Enos explained.

In his statement, Pompeo said that Chen – who is also a member of the Chinese Politburo – “oversees widespread violations in the Tibetan area, using many of the same gruesome practices and policies used by CCP officials in Xinjiang today.”

“Beijing’s savage actions targeting Uyghurs are anger at the collective awareness of the world,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at the time. “This House of Representatives, in a very strong bipartisan way, we send a message to those who are persecuted that they are not forgotten. We told the President of China: You can tell these people that they are forgotten, but they don’t.”

The Uyghur Human Rights Project praised targeted sanctions in a statement Thursday.

“Finally, the real consequences have begun. This comes at the 11th hour for the Uighurs,” UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat said. “The global response has been delayed for a long time. Now there is finally action by one government. Will other countries wait until it’s too late?”

Other human rights groups also call on other countries to do more and target Chinese people so that sanctions have the greatest impact.

“Imposing sanctions on certain Chinese officials changes their calculations, but also other officials who will be placed in this position of power in the future,” said Maya Wang, a senior Chinese researcher at Human Rights Watch. “And that is why it is important that these sanctions are coordinated among other governments because it will make them more effective in the future.”