Latest sanction
On March 26, the spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China announced sanctions to 9 individuals and 4 entities from UK for their comments regarding to Xinjiang. This sanction is part of sanctions launched as counter-backs to previous sanctions to China from the West. This sanction will be preventing them from entering Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR and Macau SAR. Their asset in China will be frozen and Chinese citizens and entities will not be allowed to do business with them.
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| Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat |
Amount those who were sanctioned, there are five members of the Parliament: Tom Tugendhat, Iain Duncan Smith, Neil O'Brien, Tim Loughton and Nusrat Ghani. There are 2 members from the House of Lords: David Alton and Helena Kennedy. The other two individuals sanctioned are Joanne Smith Finley, a scholar, and Geoffrey Nice, a lawyer. The 4 entities sanctioned are China Research Group, Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, Uyghur Tribunal, and Essex Court Chambers.
Previous Sanctions
Chen Mingguo
Sanctioned by UK
Recently, regarding Xinjiang, US, EU, UK and Canada governments launched sanctions to Chinese Officials. Those sanctions including travelling bans and freezing assets. Beside sanctions to UK which is mentioned previously, China also launched similar sanctions to individuals from EU.
Cotton and Forced Labor Accusations
Some of individuals sanctioned by China claims that there are forced labors in Xinjiang, more specifically, in the cotton industry. Bettor Cotton Initiative (BCI), whose goal is to make cotton industry sustainable, stopped licensing cottons from Xinjiang. As they stated in their website: “Increasing media and academic attention on geopolitical issues, including the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang area of China, has further demonstrated that production location and sustainability are crucially interlinked.”
As members of BCI, H&M and Nike issued statements basically saying that they will stop use cotton from Xinjiang due to the forced labor accusations. H&M’s statement was written months ago, but recently, about 2 days ago, it was discovered and criticized on Weibo (Social media similar to Twitter). Then, some people says that they will boycott H&M, Nike and other brands agree with forced labor accusations.
There is a lack of labor for cotton industry in Xinjiang. Actually, many people from other part of China were hired to do the work during busy seasons. However, neither hiring nor forcing people to pick up cotton by hands will solve the problem. To solve the problem, techs are needed. Today, some farmers use drones and tractors to mechanize the industry and improve the efficiency.
Comparison, Contrasts, and Why we hear so much human rights accusation about China?
Personally, for some part, I think these are misunderstandings caused by difference between China and the West. Some differences are physical, such as economy and geography. The others are about beliefs and ideology.
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| Bad transportation cause by landforms Le'er, Atule'er, Zhi'ermo, Liangshan, Sichuan The government built better stairs so people can be safe until moving out |
Some problems that Chinese are facing is not significant or does not exist in the west, such as overpopulation and extremely poor transportation system due to landforms (climbing cliff to go to school). So, people from the west may not understand why Chinese governments persuade people to move.
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| Cooking class at Forced Drug Addiction Treatment Center Hainan Province |
Additionally, there are some Chinese approaches that west people do not understand because of beliefs. Instead of personal freedom, Chinese people values public security more. So, Chinese government sent people addicted to drugs to get forced treatments and people who believe extremism values to education center. After all, these approaches, although may be hard to understand, do make China better, and do make Xinjiang better.
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/t1864363.shtml
http://new.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/dhdw_673027/t1863102.shtml
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/25/china/china-uk-sanctions-xinjiang-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-china-eu-sanctions-idUSKBN2BE2LF
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56532569https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-slaps-sanctions-chinese-officials-uyghur-abuses-76602377
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7dK45gRCCYZ1RMsbkw5CoQ
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1X5411P7fT
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/business/hm-nike-xinjiang-cotton-boycott-intl-hnk/index.html
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