U.S. technology companies are still supplying China’s surveillance state with equipment and software for monitoring populations and censoring information, including in the Xinjiang region, despite damning revelations that have led to genocide accusations against Beijing, according to researchers.
China’s foreign ministry announced new sanctions on seven Americans on Friday, including former U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on seven Chinese officials last week.
After earlier this week US Secretary of State Antony Blinken somewhat pessimistically portrayed that it remains "unclear" whether Iran is actually willing to restore the nuclear deal, prompting angry words from Foreign Minister Javad Zarif who again pointed out that it's only Washington not in compliance due to Trump-era sanctions which the Biden White House refused to "bury" in order to make a renewed deal possible, Blinken's newest statements are pouring more cold water on all the recent speculation that prematurely hailed a Vienna agreement as imminent.
Direct exports from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region to the US surged 113% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 despite Washington’s import ban on cotton and other products.
The Biden administration said it’s expelling a number of Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions on several companies in response to actions it says the Kremlin made against the U.S.
China on Tuesday threatened retaliation against the U.S. over sanctions that targeted Beijing’s alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, with top Chinese officials vowing that America and its allies “will pay a price for their ignorance and arrogance.”
The United States on March 22 announced sanctions on two more Chinese officials in connection with serious human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, where Washington says ethnic Muslims are the victims of genocide.
