The government of China has said it will take “necessary measures” to respond to the blacklisting of Chinese companies by the United States of America over their alleged role in abuses of Uyghur people and other Muslim ethnic minorities.
The United States had last week made the announcement of adding some Chinese technology and electronics companies to its trade blacklist.
In a statement issued by the US Commerce Department, the blacklisted companies were accused by the United States of helping enable “Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention and high-technology surveillance” against the Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.
Companies added to the list were 14 companies over their links in Xinjiang, with five other firms added to the list for allegedly contributing to China’s military, totaling the blacklisted list of companies to 19.
This move by the US government implies that US companies are not allowed to sell equipments and other items to these Chinese firms.
China Commerce Ministry in response has described the move by the American country as an “unreasonable suppression of Chinese enterprises and a serious breach of international economic and trade rules.”
The ministry’s statement further added that China will; “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests.”
China has since refused to give a detailed explanation but it has come out to deny any allegations of arbitrary detention and forced labor in the far western region of Xinjiang and increasingly responded to sanctions against companies and officials with its own bans on visas and financial links.
The U.S. Commerce Department has further t said that the electronics and technology firms and other businesses helped enable “Beijing’s campaign of repression, mass detention and high-technology surveillance” against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
With this prohibition, Americans are barred from having any business transaction with the listed companies. The US have gone further to step up financial and trade penalties over the way Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are being treated by China. Another of China’s alleged offence is its crackdown on democracy in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong.
It has been alleged that Chinese government since way back 2017 has held in detention close to a million or more people in Xinjiang, with critics severally accusing China of operating forced labor camps. It was also insinuated that the Asian country carried out torture and coerced sterilization as it seeks to assimilate Islamic ethnic minority groups.
China’s Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo in a statementposted on the department’s website said:
“The Department of Commerce remains firmly committed to taking strong, decisive action to target entities that are enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang or that use U.S. technology to fuel China’s destabilizing military modernization efforts.”
There are strong insinuations in certain quarters that the recent move was instigated by a coalition of Western allies and the United States as its been reported that they are in unison to ramp up pressure on China over its alleged human rights abusesagainst the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.
China has in the past responded to sanctions with retaliatory measures of its own, targeting western officials and institutions with visa bans and curbs on financial links.
We can then opine that the recent vow of retaliation is not a surprising one to all.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals. He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
