The United States has imposed financial sanctions and other restrictions on a Chinese company that developed facial recognition software and two ethnic Uyghur political leaders of Xinjiang, accusing them of participation in “gross” human rights abuses in China’s northwestern region.
The measures announced on December 10 include a ban on travel to the United States for Shohrat Zakir, the chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region from 2018-2021, and Erken Tuniyaz, who holds the position now and was previously vice chairman.
Zakir and Tuniyaz have presided over a repressive campaign of forced assimilation that has imprisoned more than 1 million Uyghurs and members of Xinjiang’s other indigenous, mostly Muslim ethnic groups, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
Treasury also imposed investment restrictions on artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group, saying its facial-recognition software has been used by the authorities to identify and control Uyghurs and members of Xinjiang’s other indigenous, mostly Muslim ethnic groups.
Beijing has been under growing international criticism over its repressive policies in Xinjiang, which the U.S. administration has declared amounted to genocide. According to the State Department, abuse includes imprisonment, torture, and enforced sterilization.
China rejects the accusation, insisting that the camps in which Uyghurs and members of other ethnic groups are being detained are “vocational education centers” aimed at helping people steer clear of terrorism.
“The mass detention of Uyghurs is part of an effort by [Chinese] authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to create a police state in the Xinjiang region,” Treasury said.
The latest batch of U.S. sanctions also includes actions on the Russian university European Institute Justo and its provost, Dmitriy Yurevich Soin, who are accused of participating in the use of North Korean construction workers in Russia, often in abusive conditions, to generate hard currency for the repressive government in Pyongyang.
