US sanctions on Chinese officials and fishing companies
According to the Treasury Department statement, the assets of Vu Yingcie, who was secretary of the Tibetan Party in 2016-2021, and Cang Hongbo, who has been regional police chief since 2018, were frozen in the US, while the Money transfers between individuals and EU members citizens were prohibited.
The ministry claimed that for decades, China has “grossly violated the rights of Tibetans” under the name of a “social stability program” and has “lobbied to restrict religious freedoms through arbitrary detention, extrajudicial execution and physical abuse.”
The decision was announced on December 10, World Human Rights Day, with similar sanctions against individuals and institutions in Russia, North Korea and other countries.
During the term of former President Donald Trump, the US also decided to impose sanctions on the former secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Party, Chin Chuanguo. Human rights violations against Uyghur Turks and other minorities living in the region were cited as the reason for the decision.
SANCTIONS TO THE MANAGERS OF TWO FISHING COMPANIES
It was also noted in the decision that Li Jinyu, director of Dalian Ocean Fishing Company, and Shinrong Cuo, manager of Pingtan Marine Enterprise, and 8 fishing nets belonging to the two companies were within the scope of the sanctions.
It was noted that Dalian Ocean “dumped the bodies of 3 employees who lost their lives during the voyage into the sea, that the crew was found to be malnourished upon return from the voyage, and that they were only able to receive a part of the promised payments.”
The company was also charged with “engaging in illegal employment practices such as recruitment deception, withholding of identity documents, punitive employment, and physical harassment.”
Pingtan Deniz, on the other hand, allegedly engaged in “serious human rights violations” and “illegal, unauthorized and irregular fishing activities in Indonesia, East Timor and Ecuador”.
It has been reported that the two companies have a stake in the fishing activity of 157 Chinese-flagged vessels.
Sanctions decisions were made under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. (AA)