US sanctions Chinese officials over alleged Tibet human rights abuses and businessmen over illegal fishing claims

The human rights move targets Wu Yingjie, Beijing’s boss in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, the region’s police chief since 2018
The sanctions come despite a relative easing of tensions between the superpowers after Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met last month in Bali

US-China relations

Robert Delaney

Published: 3:17am, 10 Dec 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

The United States announced sanctions on Friday against Chinese government officials for the alleged torture of ethnic Tibetans, and, separately, against Chinese entities and conglomerates responsible for alleged illegal fishing operations.

The sanctions came despite an easing of tensions between the United States and China since US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met last month in Indonesia.

Beijing denounced the moves ahead of the official announcements.

The US Treasury Department froze the US assets of – and blocked transactions with – Wu Yingjie, the Chinese government’s top official in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, identified as the Tibetan region’s police chief since 2018.

03:33

Xi, Biden discuss Taiwan and Xinjiang in first in-person meeting

The sanctions by the Biden administration were announced along with similar measures taken against entities in Russia, North Korea, Iran and other countries, all timed for the United Nations’ International Anti-Corruption Day and the eve of its Human Rights Day.

“The PRC has targeted Tibetans under ‘social stability work’ programmes for decades,” the department said.

“Tibetans have been subject to serious human rights abuse … including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and physical abuse, as part of the PRC’s efforts to severely restrict religious freedoms.”

China swipes at US sanctions over alleged illegal fishing, human rights abuse

The new sanctions follow a string of similar US moves against Chinese officials that stretch back to former president Donald Trump’s administration, which started Washington’s harder line against Beijing on the human rights front.

Under the direction of Trump’s then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo, the Treasury Department sanctioned Chen Quanguo, then the Communist Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region (XUAR), the highest ranking Chinese official to be sanctioned by the US government.

Pompeo’s move was in response to alleged human rights abuses in the far western region of Xinjiang, where China is accused of detaining a million Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in re-education camps. Beijing says the camps are vocational training centres and part of efforts to combat terrorism.

03:36

Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims

While departing from most of Trump’s policies, Biden has kept the pressure on China. Just a few weeks after he took office last year, he banded together with Canada, the EU and Britain to sanction Chinese officials over suspected human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Despite his meeting with Xi in Indonesia that many had seen as successful in keeping bilateral tensions from worsening further, Biden’s administration has not pulled punches on the human rights front.

Separately on Friday, the department announced sanctions on Li Zhenyu and Xinrong Zhuo and the fishing networks that the two business executives control, including Dalian Ocean Fishing Company and Nasdaq-listed Pingtan Marine Enterprise along with eight other affiliated entities.

China ‘systematically’ denies access to Tibet, US State Department says

All the sanctions are authorised by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which was signed into law by then-president Barack Obama in 2012.

Dalian Ocean was accused of dumping the bodies of three crew members at sea, among other violations.

According to the department: “The bodies of three crew members who died at sea were dumped into the ocean rather than repatriated home.

“When the surviving crew members returned home, they were diagnosed with malnutrition and received only a fraction of their promised pay.

“They have since described deceptive recruiting practices, the confiscation of identity documents, punishing work, and physical abuse.”

Indonesian maritime workers protest on December 17, 2020 in front of the Chinese embassy in Jakarta to condemn abuse aboard Chinese fishing vessels. The US Treasury Department has sanctioned China’s Dalian Ocean Fishing Company and Pngtan Marine Enterprise, alleging the abuse of workers on their vessels. Photo: AFP

Pingtan engaged in “serious human rights abuse”, “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing” and other illegal activity in Indonesia, East Timor, and Ecuador, according to the statement.

The Treasury Department also identified 157 Chinese-flagged fishing vessels in which Li, Zhuo and their conglomerates have an interest.

Responding to a Wall Street Journal report about the sanctions, published ahead of the official announcements, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning condemned the moves.

She said in Beijing on Friday that Washington was “interfering in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights”, adding that China would “resolutely take effective measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests”.