China determined to give 'resolute response' if UK sanctions Chinese officials

Amid increasing tensions between London and Beijing, Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom said on July 19 that China will resolutely respond to any attempt by the UK to sanction its officials. While speaking to an international media outlet, Liu Xiaoming said that if the United Kingdom imposes sanctions on any Chinese individual, then the country will certainly make a ‘resolute response’ to it. 

After China imposed the new security law in Hong Kong, UK decided to offer refuge to millions, however, the decision was met with a stern telling-off by Beijing. The Chinese officials have repeatedly threatened ‘consequences’ if UK treats it as a ‘hostile country’.

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The Chinese ambassador, while giving the example of the United States-China relationship, said that the US sanctioned Chinese officials and Beijing sanctioned their senators and their officials in response. He added that China doesn’t want to see such ‘tit-for-tat’ happen in China-UK relations. 

Xiaoming’s statement comes after Britain, earlier this month, had introduced a new sanctions regime to target individuals it says are involved in human rights abuses or organised crime in China. According to reports, several lawmakers in British PM Boris Johnson’s Conservative party had said that the sanctions should be used to target the Chinese officials. However, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab reportedly said that Britain would be ‘too weak’ to challenge China through this channel. 

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‘Magnitsky’-style sanctions

The new ‘Magnitsky’-style sanctions regime will allow the UK to target individuals and organisations around the world unlike conventional geographic sanctions regime, which only targets a country.

The sanctions also include 20 Saudi nationals involved in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, two high-ranking Myanmar military generals involved in the systematic and brutal violence against the Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities and two organisations involved in the forced labour, torture and murder that takes place in North Korea’s gulags.  

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