China Sanctions Sens. Cruz, Rubio in Retaliation for Sanctions
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China on Monday announced sanctions against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), and U.S. Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback after getting hit by sanctions from the United States.
China announced the sanctions after the U.S. last week took action against Chinese officials involved in abuses against Muslims in the Xinjiang region. “The Communist Party of China has banned me from entering the country,” Rubio wrote in a message on Twitter announcing the sanctions. “I guess they don’t like me?”
The Associated Press indicated China “did not spell out the sanctions beyond saying they would correspond to the American ones,” which prohibited four senior Chinese officials from entering the U.S. or engaging in property transactions with Americans.
The Communist Party of #China has banned me from entering the country.
I guess they don’t like me?
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 13, 2020
Brownback’s last Twitter posts on July 9 praised U.S. sanctions against China, calling them “a long time coming” and saying they “underscore that the U.S. will protect religous freedom at all costs.”
Accountability a long time coming for Chen Quanguo, Zhu Hailun, & Wang Mingshan, the CCP officials for whom @SecPompeo restricted visas for gross violations of human rights in #Xinjiang, including #religiousfreedom abuses, against #Uyghurs & other Muslims. https://t.co/lkjfu7nLYL
— Ambassador Sam Brownback (@IRF_Ambassador) July 9, 2020
This administration continues to lead on efforts to protect #religiousfreedom & address the PRC govt’s abuses. @SecPompeo’s designations & @USTreasury‘s sanctions today on CCP officials, including #ChenQuanguo, underscore that the U.S. will protect religous freedom at all costs.
— Ambassador Sam Brownback (@IRF_Ambassador) July 9, 2020
In his statement on the sanctions last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States “will not stand idly by as the CCP carries out human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, to include forced labor, arbitrary mass detention, and forced population control, and attempts to erase their culture and Muslim faith.”
“I am designating three senior CCP officials under Section 7031(c) of the FY 2020 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, for their involvement in gross violations of human rights,” he announced, naming Chen Quanguo, Zhu Hailun, and Wang Mingshan.
“As a result, they and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States,” Pompeo declared, adding that he is also “placing additional visa restrictions on other CCP officials believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention or abuse of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang.”
