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The US has imposed visa restrictions on current and previous Thai officials, who were involved in the forced repatriation of Uyghur Muslims as part of a new policy to support groups subject to torture in China.
Politics will aim for foreign officials who are aware of the efforts to strongly return ethnic or religious minorities into danger of persecution in China.
“We are committed to fighting China’s efforts to pressure governments to forcibly turn Uyghurs and other groups in China, where they are subject to the torture and disappearances implemented,” said Marco Rubio, Secretary of State.
“In the light of the long acts of China’s genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Uygurs, we call on governments around the world not to force Uyghurs and other groups in China.”
Rubio said the action against current and previous Thai officials was a response to their involvement in the obligation of 40 Uygurs to return to China at the end of February. Thailand is a US Allied Protective Treaty but the country is nervous about China’s antagonization, which is much more important for the Nation of South Asia from a trade perspective.
The State Department did not specify what the visa restrictions will bring, but such measures usually refer to the denial of visas to enter the US Rubio said that measures can also be applied to the family members of any official finding that they are facilitating repatriation.
Uyghurs are an ethnic Turkish minority from the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang. In 2022, the High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights accused Beijing of committing “serious human rights violations” in the way he handled Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
China over time forced more than 1 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang detention camps, promoting criticism from many countries around the world. Beijing has repeatedly denied that he has persecuted Uyghurs.
Politics is an early indication of how President Donald Trump will respond to human rights violations involving China. At the end of his first mandate, the then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of conducting genocide. His successor in Joe Biden’s administration, Antony Blinken, later repeated the charge.
Rubio was one of China’s noisiest critics and her human rights rights when serving in the US Senate, along with Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and Congressman of Florida who is now a national security adviser.
Many China experts believe Trump wants to reach a widespread deal with Beijing that would include trade and other issues. One thing they are observing is how the president and his officials talk about alleged human rights violations in China given the possible implications for any wider negotiation with President Xi Jinping.
