China warns US to not ‘salami slice’ its ‘red line’ after sanctioning two Americans

Remarks come after it sanctioned two US citizens in retaliation to Washington’s actions over Tibet

China’s foreign minister told US state secretary Antony Blinken to stop the “old routine of unilateral bullying”, according a press statement.

The reported call comes amid rising tensions between the two superpowers after Washington’s actions on Tibet.

“The US should not challenge China’s red line in a ‘salami slicing’ manner,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told Mr Blinken, according to an official statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday.

It added that Mr Blinken was told that the US must stop suppressing China’s development.

The statement comes after China sanctioned two US citizens in retaliation of its actions over Tibet, the government said on Friday as the standoff between the two countries intensifies.

Two US citizens namely Todd Stein, an official working at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and Miles Yu Maochun, a senior academic, along with their close family members, have been banned from entering China.

Their assets in the country have also been frozen.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the measures were in response to the US sanctioning two Chinese citizens “under the excuse of the ‘Tibet human rights’ issue.”

Earlier this month, the US imposed sanctions on Wu Yingjie, the top official in Tibet from 2016-21 and Zhang Hongbo, the region’s police chief since 2018, over human-rights violations in the region.

“Our actions further aim to disrupt and deter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary detention and physical abuse of members of religious minority groups in the Tibetan Autonomous Region,” secretary of state Antony Blinken said on 9 December announcing the sanctions.

An accompanying Treasury Department notice said Mr Wu had been responsible for “stability policies” in Tibet the implementation of which involved “serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions”.

It said that during Mr Zhang’s tenure, police have been engaged in serious human rights abuses, including “torture, physical abuse, and killings of prisoners, which included those arrested on religious and political grounds”.

The Chinese announcement, that came in retaliation of the sanctions, did not provide any specific accusations against the two American citizens Mr Stein and Mr Yu.

Amid the standoff, China also denied asking for any help from the US on vaccinations as the country grapples with one of the worst outbreaks of Covid with a significantly lower rate of people with third dose.

China’s domestic production of medical supplies is expanding and is generally sufficient, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday on Mr Blinken’s statement saying China has not asked it for vaccines.

“Currently, China’s vaccination rate is rising, as is the ability of the vaccine to treat people,” said foreign ministry official Mao Ning said at the press briefing.

In recent months, as tensions between the two countries increase, China has adopted a policy of tit-for-tat sanctions.

Beijing claims Tibet is part of its territory but there have been demands to free the region from Chinese control since it annexation in 1950.

Additional reporting by agencies