Increasing China’s troubles, European Union (EU) officials have approved sanctions on Chinese officials, who are accused of human rights violations in the Xinjiang province.
The penalties, which were approved at preparatory meetings for next week’s Foreign Affairs Council, will be formally adopted at a meeting of the bloc’s top diplomats on Monday.
These will be the first sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The embargo is still in place.
Across the world, China has been rebuked for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Meanwhile, Beijing has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang despite reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees highlighting the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on the ethnic community.
Analysts have described the move as having “crossed a threshold” in relations with Beijing. It also marks the first time that the EU will use its new human rights sanctioning toolbox — adopted last year — against China, having given it a maiden outing following the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny last month.