US, EU, Britain, Canada Impose Sanctions on Chinese Officials

The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada have imposed sanctions on several Chinese officials for human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang province, prompting retaliation from China. 

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

This is the first time the EU has imposed sanctions on China since an arms embargo after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. That embargo is still in place.

Although the EU sanctions are not very damaging, they show a hardening of stance against its largest trading partner. Also significant is that the Western powers moved together.

China retaliated with sanctions of its own. It has consistently denied all reports of atrocities against Uighurs, maintaining it is only “deradicalizing” elements of its population in the interests of security.