China sanctions 2 US citizens over action on Tibet

China has sanctioned two U.S. citizens in retaliation for action taken by Washington over human rights abuses in Tibet, government said Friday, amid an ongoing standoff between sides over Beijing's treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Todd Stein and Miles Yu Maochun, along with ir close family members, would be banned from entering China. Any assets y h in China would be frozen and y would be barred from contact with people or organizations within China.

notice said measures were in response to U.S. sanctioning two Chinese citizens “under excuse of Tibet human rights' issue.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China was responding to what it considered a violation of “basic norms of international relations” and that Stein and Yu “behaved egregiously on Tibet and or China-related issues.” “We would like to stress once again that Tibetan affairs are purely an internal affair of China, and U.S. has no right to interfere in it, and that gross interference in China's internal affairs will be met with strong countermeasures from China," Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.

“We urge U.S. to withdraw so-called sanctions and stop interfering in Tibetan affairs and China's internal affairs," spokesperson said.

In an emailed comment to Associated Press, Stein said sanction order against him “doesn't matter" in larger context.

“What matters is thousands of prisoners of conscience jailed by Chinese authorities. Let's not divert attention from ir human rights abuses," Stein said.

Yu could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Dec. 9, U.S. imposed sanctions on Wu Yingjie, top official in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, region's police chief since 2018.

“Our actions furr aim to disrupt and deter People's Republic of China's (PRC) arbitrary detention and physical abuse of members of religious minority groups in Tibetan Autonomous Region," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in announcing sanctions.

An accompanying Treasury Department notice said Wu h been responsible for “stability policies” in Tibet whose implementation involved “serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions." It said that during Zhang's tenure, police have been engaged in serious human rights abuses, including “torture, physical abuse, and killings of prisoners, which included those arrested on religious and political grounds." Chinese announcement gave no specific accusations against Stein and Yu.

Stein has been deputy staff director at Congressional-Executive Commission on China since 2021 and previously served as senior visor to Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Sarah Sewall, including serving as her le staffer on Tibetan issues. Previously, he was director of government relations at monitoring group International Campaign for Tibet.

Chinese-born Yu is a senior acemic who taught at U.S. Naval Acemy and a noted critic of regime of Chinese Communist Party leer Xi Jinping. He served as key China viser under former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

China in recent years has passed legislation mandating tit-for-tat sanctions against foreign individuals from U.S., EU and or countries over perceived slights against its national interests. Washington and ors have compiled a long list of Chinese officials barred from visiting or engaging in transactions with ir financial institutions ranging from leer of semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong to local officials accused of human rights abuses.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although backers of exiled Buddhist leer Dalai Lama say it was functionally independent for most of that time.

Communist forces inved in 1950 and China has ruled Himalayan region with an iron fist ever since, imposing ever stricter surveillance and travel restrictions since last uprising against Beijing's rule in 2008. Lengthy prison sentences in dire conditions are imposed for acts of defiance, including defending region's unique language and Buddhist culture from attempts at assimilation.

China has also been accused of detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and or Muslim minorities in reeducation camps as part of a campaign to wipe out ir native language and culture, including through forced options and sterilizations. China denies such charges, saying it has only been fighting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.