China Threatens Consequences As US Passes Uyghur Rights Policy Act

Image used for representation.

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/The Quint)

Amid-border row with India, China is now also at loggerheads with the Unted States as the Donald Trump-led government has passed a legislation that would sanction Chinese officials over the mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

Beijing on Thursday slammed the law and called it an attack on China's policy in the Xinjiang region.

According to NDTV, the legislation requires the US administration to determine which Chinese officials are responsible for the "arbitrary detention, torture and harassment" of Uyghurs and other minorities.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that the country will “hit back and the US will bear the burden of all subsequent consequences.”

“China strongly deplores the US signing into law of the ‘Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020’. We urge the US side to respect China's counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts, stop applying double standards on counter-terrorism issues, and stop using Xinjiang-related issues as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs,” according to the statement on the ministry website.

“Otherwise, China will resolutely take countermeasures, and all the consequences arising therefrom must be fully borne by the United States,” China said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.

According to NDTV, the United States would then freeze any assets the officials hold in the world's largest economy and ban their entry into the country.

The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region, Reuters reported.

The US State Department has accused Chinese officials of subjecting Muslims to torture, abuse “and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion.”

(With inputs from NDTV and Reuters.)