WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced sanctions Friday on a powerful government entity and two senior officials who have helped manage it, citing systemic human rights abuses against predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region in China’s far northwest. The sanctions, imposed by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, name the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp, an economic and paramilitary organization that plays a central role in the development of the Xinjiang region, and two associated officials, Peng Jiarui and Sun Jinlong. “The United States is committed to using the full breadth of its financial powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and across the world,” Steven T. Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, said in a statement. The sanctions most likely will have little or no practical impact on Mr. Peng, the deputy party secretary and commander of the development group, and Mr. Sun, one of its former political commissars. It was not immediately clear what effect they would have on trade and international commerce done by the group, which oversees some state-run companies that export products such as tomato paste.

Source: International New York Times July 31, 2020 17:15 UTC