China sanctions pro-democracy politicians, NGOs

     

 

China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing, The Associated Press reports:

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the 11 had “performed badly” on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month….

Others named by the foreign ministry included Senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) President Carl Gershman (right), National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell, International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, and Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House, were also on the sanctions list.

The Chinese government’s oppressive actions speak for themselves, the NED tweeted in response.

In an analysis of Beijing’s responses to Washington ahead of the new sanctions, researchers Adam Ni and Yun Jiang at China Neican wrote that China was pushing back hard against each measure from the Trump administration to avoid an appearance of weakness, The Post reports.

“An assertive tit-for-tat,” they wrote, “risks further escalation, but at least sends a consistent message that Beijing is willing to impose costs on the U.S. in response to U.S. actions. So Beijing will almost certainly continue to adopt a tit-for-tat approach to responding to Washington.”

The announcement coincides with the arrest of Jimmy Lai, one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, the BBC adds:

In recent years masked attackers have firebombed Mr Lai’s house and company headquarters. The 71-year-old has also been the target of an assassination plot. But none of this has stopped him from airing his views robustly. He has been a prominent part of the city’s pro-democracy demonstrations and was already arrested twice this year on illegal assembly charges for earlier protests before Monday’s arrest.

“I’m a troublemaker. I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything,” he told AFP in an interview in June.

“As the CCP seeks to extinguish political freedom in Hong Kong and perpetrates atrocities against the Uighur minority, we grieve with victims of these campaigns of repression,” said IRI’s Twining. “Today’s sanctions are a naked attempt to deflect attention from these crackdowns, but in fact they only draw focus to the Xi regime’s tragic efforts to subjugate the Chinese people and suppress criticism both within and beyond its borders.”

“Last month China banned me. Today they sanctioned me. I don’t want to be paranoid but I am starting to think they don’t like me,” Mr. Rubio tweeted in response to the news of Beijing’s measure, The WSJ adds.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley tweeted, “Retaliate all you want. I’m not backing down,” while Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wrote: “Chinese Communism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world, and I will never back down from fighting it,” the BBC adds.

By sanctioning Freedom House President @abramowitz, @marcorubio, and other members of Congress, & our partners at @IRIglobal @NDI @NEDemocracy, ⁦the #CCP is trying to distract from their ongoing repression of their own people, @freedomhouse tweeted. We stand with the people of #HongKong.

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