China sanctions Joe Manchin’s wife, other US officials

The Chinese government announces a wave of sanctions against American and Canadian officials critical of its policies in Xinjiang

Gayle Manchin, right, has been banned from entering any part of China (AFP via Getty Images)

Gayle Manchin, wife of SenatorJoe Manchin, has been banned from entering any part of China, the country’s foreign ministry announced on Saturday.

The ban is part of a wave of sanctions the government announced against US and Canadian officials who have criticized the country’s policies in Xinjiang, a historically Muslim region. Ms Manchin, chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), was one of several people singled out for punishment.

“They must stop political manipulation on Xinjiang-related issues, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form and refrain from going further down the wrong path,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Otherwise, they will get their fingers burnt.”

Also sanctioned were Tony Perkins, the USCIRF’s vice chairman; Michael Chong, a member of the Parliament of Canada; and the Parliament’s entire Subcommittee on International Human Rights. In addition to the travel ban, all those on the list were prohibited from doing business with any “Chinese citizens and institutions,” the foreign ministry said.

Western governments and human rights organizations have accused China of detaining over a million Uyghurs and other Muslims of Xinjiang in internment camps. Former detainees have reported being tortured, brainwashed, forced to work, and involuntarily sterilized.

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China has denied such claims, saying the camps’ purpose is simply to stamp out extremism and terrorism – and, incongruously, to provide job training. Government officials have called the human rights accusations “fake reports” and countered that “Xinjiang is a wonderful land.”

The US government is not convinced. On 22 March, the State Department imposed sanctions on members of the Chinese government for “serious human rights abuse against members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”

USCIRF praised those sanctions, which may be why Ms Manchin was among those sanctioned by China.

“Yesterday’s announcement of coordinated sanctions by the United States and like-minded partners sends an unmistakably clear message to the Chinese Communist Party that the international community will not tolerate its repressive, genocidal policies in the Uyghur region,” Nury Turkel, USCIRF’s commissioner, said at the time.

Ms Manchin was not included in the statement, but a post on USCIRF’s Instagram page quoted her as criticizing the Chinese policies earlier this month.

“Since 2017, the Chinese Communist government has detained millions of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in internment camps,” Ms Manchin said. “This practice is believed to represent the largest-scale detention of an ethnographies-religious minority group since World War II.”