US to restrict visas for China officials linked to Uighur detentions

The Trump administration will impose visa restrictions on Chinese government officials connected to the mass detention of Uighurs in western China, another escalation in tensions between the powers as they prepare for a new round of trade talks. Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, said China had pursued a “highly repressive campaign” against Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in the region of Xinjiang, which included mass detention, high-tech surveillance and “draconian controls” on cultural and religious expression.

“The US calls on the People’s Republic of China to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang, release all those arbitrarily detained and cease efforts to coerce members of Chinese Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate,” Mr Pompeo said.

The Chinese embassy in Washington responded in a series of angry tweets that accused the US of interfering in China’s internal affairs with “made up pretexts” and a serious violation of “the basic norms governing international relations”

Read the full story and more in the Financial Times.