China said on Sunday it was taking countermeasures against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in human rights issues related to the Uyghurs and Tibet.
The measures that came into force on Saturday include asset freezes and entry bans. The targets include the Canadian Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website.
Human rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuse of the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers about 10 million in the western Xinjiang region, including the mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
China took control of Tibet in 1950 in what it described as a “peaceful liberation” from feudal serfdom. But international human rights groups and exiles continue to condemn what they call Chinese oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.
For the two institutions, China said it is freezing “their movable property, immovable property and other types of property within the territory of China.” It freezes the property of 15 people in the Uyghur detention center and five members of the Tibet Committee in China and bans them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
Canada recently announced sanctions against several Chinese officials, citing “serious human rights violations.”
“Canada is deeply concerned about human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet and against those who practice Falun Gong,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement released earlier this month.
Calls to the Canadian embassy in Beijing went unanswered. Reuters did not receive an immediate response from the human rights groups or Global Affairs Canada.
