Beijing has issued sanctions on 27 former Trump administration officials, including former US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, minutes after Joe Biden took an oath as the 46th President of the United States.
According to the Chinese government, they are being indicted for “selfish political interests, prejudice, and hatred against China” and for having “seriously violated” China’s sovereignty.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, confirmed this decision.
“Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the US, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed the crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations,” an official statement of the Chinese foreign ministry stated.
Chunying further said, “These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China.”
The sanction is imposed in target of 28 individuals, including Matthew Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser who was one of the main drivers of Washington’s hawkish stance towards China.
The others namely are, Peter Navarro (incumbent Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy), Robert O’Brien (former National Security Adviser), David R. Stilwell (former Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs), Alex Azar (former Secretary of Health and Human Services), Keith J Krach (incumbent Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment), and Kelly Craft (former Ambassador to the UN), John Bolton (former National Security Advisor) and Stephen K Bannon (former White House Chief Strategist).
This decision was announced a day after Pompeo commented on the repression and detention of more than 1 million Muslim Uighurs, and other religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang as genocide. A week before that, Pompeo lifted old restrictions on American contact with the Taiwanese officials under the Donald Trump’s administration.
