CNBC | Jacob Pramuk | Oct. 8, 2019
The Trump administration put visa restrictions on Chinese officials Tuesday amid ongoing abuses of Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the measures target officials “who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention and abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, or other members of Muslim minority groups” in the territory in northwest China. It follows the administration’s move on Monday to blacklist 28 public security entities and companies alleged to be involved in surveillance and detention of minority groups, effectively restricting U.S. companies from doing business with them.
“The United States calls on the People’s Republic of China to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those arbitrarily detained, and cease efforts to coerce members of Chinese Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate,” the top U.S. diplomat said in a statement.
In a subsequent tweeted statement, Pompeo said “China has forcibly detained over one million Muslims in a brutal, systematic campaign to erase religion and culture in Xinjiang.”