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The
four people, from the U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF), would be banned from mainland China, Hong Kong
and Macau, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
Their assets in China would also be frozen and Chinese
institutions and citizens would be forbidden from dealing with
them, Zhao said at a regular briefing in Beijing.
"We are not surprised to see the Chinese government impose
additional baseless sanctions in response to growing concern
over its egregious human rights and religious freedom
violations," said USCIRF chair Nadine Maenza, one of the people
China barred entry to, according to an online statement.
The United States had said that its Dec. 10 sanctions were in
response to human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region,
where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are alleged to have
been unlawfully detained, mistreated and forced to work. China
denies abuses in Xinjiang and says its policies there help
combat extremism.
The USCIRF is a federal government entity which evaluates and
suggests policies for countries where religious freedom is
deemed to be endangered.
Apart from USCIRF's chair, the sanctions would also affect the
vice chair and two commissioners at USCIRF, Zhao said.
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Writing by Gabriel Crossley; Editing
by Andrew Heavens, Nick Macfie and Michael Perry)
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