US imposes sweeping sanctions on China, Myanmar and North Korea for extreme Human Rights violations
Human rights groups have reported that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities had been incarcerated and tortured in camps in Xinjiang, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
The United States on Friday imposed sweeping sanctions on several individuals and companies from China, Myanmar and North Korea because of human rights violations happening in these countries.
Canada and the United Kingdom have backed the sanctions against Myanmar, Reuters reported.
“Our actions today, particularly those in partnership with the United Kingdom and Canada, send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse the power of the state to inflict suffering and repression,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stated
The United States has also criticised China for its human rights violations in the Xinjiang province, Tibet and Hong Kong.
Human rights groups have reported that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities had been incarcerated and tortured in camps in Xinjiang, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
These violations were also the reason for the United States’ diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, which some other countries also followed.
On Friday, the United States added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime to a list of “Chinese military-industrial complex companies,” for allegedly developing facial recognition programmes that can determine a person’s ethnicity. The technology targets ethnic Uighurs.
Myanmar’s Directorate of Defence Industries, which makes weapons for the military and the police to use against those who oppose the Army, also featured on the United States’ sanctions list.
Myanmar’s Army took power in the country months after the victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in the national elections in November 2020.Now she has once gain been incarcerated.
The country’s military refused to accept the government, citing allegations of fraud. It was also announced that the coup was the result of the government’s failure to delay the November 2020 election despite the outbreak of the coronavirus. More than 80 people were killed in the region in April.
The military government administration’s head in Myanmar’s Bago region Myo Swe Win was also mentioned in the United States sanctions list, published on Friday.
The list also includes North Korea’s Central Public Prosecutors Office, which has been accused of indiscriminately detaining foreign residents.
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