Washington: The Biden administration today said it was imposing new sanctions on several Chinese biotech and surveillance companies for actions in Xinjiang province, the latest step against Beijing over human rights abuses of Uighur Muslims in the country’s western region.
The Commerce Department is targeting China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and its 11 research institutes that focus on using biotechnology to support the Chinese military.
An official noted that US intelligence has established that Beijing has set up a high-tech surveillance system across Xinjiang that uses biometric facial recognition and has collected DNA samples from all residents in Xinjiang part of a systematic effort to suppress Uighurs. Meanwhile, the Senate gave final approval to a Bill barring all imports from China’s Xinjiang region unless businesses can prove they were produced without forced labour.