China has announced “countermeasures” against Canadian groups and individuals two weeks after Canada imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials in early December over human rights concerns. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Saturday that it was freezing the assets in China of Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada Tibet Committee.
The ministry, citing China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, said organizations and individuals in China were prohibited from conducting transactions or cooperating with those groups. They would also be barred from travel to China, including Hong Kong and Macau. The ministry in its announcement did not refer directly to Canada’s Dec. 10 sanctions on eight former and current senior Chinese officials over what Canada said was their involvement in grave human rights violations in Tibet and Xinjiang and against followers of the Falun Gong spiritual sect.At the time, the Chinese ministry said Canada “smeared and slandered” China and interfered in its internal affairs with its “illegal” sanctions and “clumsy political theatrics.”
