Hong Kong (CNN Business) Washington is adding 28 Chinese companies, government offices and security bureaus to a United States blacklist over their alleged role in facilitating human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region. Monday's announcement targets some of China's top artificial intelligence companies in a similar way to the US move against smartphone giant Huawei earlier this year, and comes just days before crucial trade talks between the two sides. In a statement , the US Commerce Department said "these entities have been implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups in [Xinjiang]." For the last two-and-a-half years, China has been detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in what Beijing alternately describes as "voluntary de-radicalization camps" and "vocational training centers." Former detainees have described them as closer to internment camps, however, and allegations of abuse are rampant, including in firsthand accounts given to CNN describing torture and forced political re-education under the threat of violence.

Source: CNN October 08, 2019 04:16 UTC