Ambassadors from the 27 countries gave the green light for the measures as part of a package of human rights sanctions.
BRUSSELS: EU member states have agreed to impose sanctions on four Chinese officials and one entity over Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur minority, European diplomats said Wednesday.
Ambassadors from the 27 countries gave the green light for the measures as part of a package of human rights sanctions that will also see individuals in Russia, North Korea, Eritrea, South Sudan and Libya targeted, diplomats said.
The sanctions—set to hit around a dozen people in total—have to be formally confirmed by EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday.
China has already reacted angrily to the prospect of punishment over its actions in the western Xinjiang region.
“Sanctions based on lies could be interpreted as deliberately undermining China’s security and development interests,” Zhang Ming, Beijing’s ambassador to the EU, said on Tuesday.
“We want dialogue not confrontation. We ask the EU side to think twice. If some insist on confrontation we will not back down as we have no options but fulfilling our responsibilities to people of our country.”
Rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the northwestern region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
China has strongly denied allegations of forced labour involving Uighurs in Xinjiang and says training programs, work schemes and better education have helped stamp out extremism in the region.
The EU is expanding its new global human rights sanctions regime after launching it this month with sanctions on four Russian officials over the jailing of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Diplomats said the fresh sanctions on Russia are set to target individuals behind abuses in the country’s Chechnya region, which is ruled with an iron-fist by Kremlin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.
