Moments after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, China announced that it has decided to sanction 28 Americans including former state Secretary Michael Pompeo and other Trump administration officials for violating Beijing's sovereignty, stating they had made "crazy moves" that "seriously disrupted" US-China ties.
The Americans sanctioned by China include former Trump advisor John R Bolton and former White House chief strategist, who was charged with defrauding political donors who supported building a border wall that Trump advocated.
The sanctioned individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and compes and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China, according to the statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The Ministry said that anti-China politicians in the US have "planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, undermined China's interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations".
"China has decided to sanction 28 persons who have seriously violated China's sovereignty and who have been mainly responsible for such US moves on China-related issues. They include Michael R Pompeo, Peter K Navarro, former President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser Robert C O'Brien, David R Stilwell, Matthew Pottinger, Alex M Azar II, Keith J Krach, and Kelly DK Craft of the Trump administration as well as John R Bolton and Stephen K Bannon," it added.
The statement comes a day after the Trump administration, in one of its final acts, declared that Beijing was committing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslims in a far western region.
A day before Biden was to be sworn in as the president of the United States, then-Secretary of State Pompeo said that he has directed the Department of State to continue to investigate and collect relevant information regarding the ongoing atrocities occurring in Xinjiang.
Antony J Blinken, Biden's pick for secretary of state, said on Tuesday that he agreed with Pompeo's move to declare that China's repression of the Uyghurs constituted genocide.
( With inputs from ANI )
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