China sanctions ex-US lawmaker and supporter of Taiwan

[May 21, 2024]  BEIJING (Reuters) -China has banned former U.S. lawmaker Mike Gallagher from entering the country and taken other measures in response to his words and actions that "interfered in China's internal affairs", the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

China will freeze Gallagher's assets in the country and ban organizations and individuals there from trading and cooperating with him, the ministry said.  

Chairman U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) speaks with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former CIA director and former defense secretary Leon Panetta, during a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

It did not go into detail on what Gallagher had said or done.

Gallagher, a Republican, has been a fierce critic of China and a strong supporter of Taiwan, a democratically run island Beijing claims as its own.

In February, Gallagher visited Taiwan and met both then-President Tsai Ing-wen and current President Lai Ching-te. He told Tsai the trip was to show bipartisan support for the island and called her "a leader within the free world".

China rebuked U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday for congratulating Lai on his inauguration. Lai is regarded by China as a separatist.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Nick Macfie)

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