Condemns US Sanctions As Heretical, Warns China Will Strike Back Decisively

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. (Twitter/@MFA_China)

JAKARTA - China has warned the United States it will strike back in response to its reckless actions, urging Washington to withdraw recent sanctions targeting people and entities linked to Beijing's alleged human rights abuses.

The United States imposed human rights-related sanctions on Friday against Chinese individuals and entities, adding individuals and entities linked to Myanmar, North Korea, and Bangladesh.

In response to this, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denounced the sanctions as "a heretical act".

"We urge the US to immediately withdraw the relevant wrong decisions and stop interfering in China's internal affairs and harming China's interests", he quoted Al Jazeera as December 14.

"If the US acts recklessly, China will take effective steps to strike back decisively", Wang said.

The moves are the latest in a series of sanctions to coincide with President Biden's two-day virtual summit for Democracy, where he announced initiatives to boost democracy around the world and endorse pro-democracy legislation in the United States.

Yesterday, Wang vowed that Beijing was "unshakable in its determination to defend its sovereignty, security and national development interests."

He also defended China's policy of dealing with the Uighur Muslim community in the Xinjiang autonomous region, saying it was determined "to fight violence, terrorism, separatism, and religious extremist forces".

"The misguided actions of the United States cannot destroy the whole form of development of Xinjiang, stop China's progress, or reverse the historical development trend", he said.

Among those targeted by the US Treasury for sanctions is Chinese artificial intelligence firm SenseTime, which accuses it of developing a facial recognition program that can pinpoint the ethnicity of targets, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uighurs.

Separately, UN experts and rights groups estimate more than one million people, mainly Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained or imprisoned in recent years in Xinjiang's sprawling camp system.

Last Thursday, an unofficial and independent UK-based court also ruled that the Chinese government committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture against Uighurs and other minorities.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, head of the Uyghur Court and prominent human rights lawyer, said the Chinese government had targeted the Muslim Uighur population with its policies of birth control, as well as forced sterilization to reduce the group's population.

He said, "this vast apparatus of state repression would not exist if a plan was not passed at the highest level".

Meanwhile, Wang also criticized the recent Democracy Summit hosted by the US, saying Washington cannot decide whether a country is democratic or not by its own benchmarks.

"The Summit for Democracy betrays the true nature of the US as a destroyer of democracy while shedding its disguise as a defender of democracy", Wang criticized.

Wang called on all countries to work together on global issues to move forward with community building with a shared future for mankind. He also criticized the sanctions aimed at the company SenseTime, saying the decision was "based on lies and false information".