After the United States (US) blacklisted senior Chinese officials over the accusations of human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslims, China on Monday announced “corresponding sanctions” against the US.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated, “The U.S. actions seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs, seriously violate the basic norms of international relations and seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations”.
“China will make further responses based on how the situation develops,” she added.
The Chinese sanctions are applied on US Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Representative Chris Smith, Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China; all of them have sponsored US legislation over human rights issues in China.
In response to China’s sanctions, Rubio posted on Twitter, asking, “I guess they don’t like me?”
Cruz, also posted on twitter stating that the Chinese Communist Party was “terrified and lashing out.”
The Chinese sanctions come in response to the recently implemented US sanctions on China under the Global Magnitsky Act that allows the US government to freeze the accused Chinese official’s US assets, put them under US travel ban and prohibit Americans from doing any business with them.