BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) China calls on the United States to cancel sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) and stop interfering in Beijing's domestic affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday.
The XPCC fulfills government functions, including policing, education and health care in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under direct control of the central government rather than local authorities. In late July, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Washington imposed sanctions against the XPCC under the Global Magnitsky Act in connection with "serious human rights abuse against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang."
"These actions by the US have become a gross interference in the internal affairs of China and a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations. China strongly condemns this and strongly opposes it," Wang said during a briefing, adding that there were no issues with ethnic and religious minorities in China's autonomous region, but rather with terrorism, violence and separatism.
The spokesman also said that Xinjiang's issues were China's domestic affairs and the US had no right to meddle in them.
"We call on the US to immediately cancel this wrong decision and stop any actions and statements that interfere in China's internal affairs and harm China's interests," Wang said.
According to the spokesman, the XPCC and all ethnic and religious minorities of Xinjiang are peacefully coexisting and helping each other to develop the region and national unity.
