China sanctioned two Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against two Chinese officials over human rights in Tibet earlier this month, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Friday.
Based on an order signed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, anti-sanctions measures against historian Miles Yu and Todd Stein, deputy staff director with the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will take effect from Friday.
Furthermore, China will freeze all Chinese assets of Yu and Stein, and ban any organization or individual within China from engaging with them.
On December 9, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was imposing sanctions on the two Chinese officials to discourage arbitrary detention and physical abuse of the religious minority groups in Tibet.
A Treasury Department statement indicated that Wu's policies led to "serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions."
The statement pointed out that during Zhang's tenure, the Chinese police were involved in serious human rights abuses including "torture, physical abuse, and killings of prisoners, which included those arrested on religious and political grounds."
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