Washington has not specified the number of those affected by the measure, nor their identity or rank. The US statement also fails to explain what prompted the crackdown.
Pressure
The sanctions come as President Joe Biden is trying to pressure Beijing to use its influence over Russia to end the invasion of Ukraine, or at least refrain from supporting Moscow.
Blinken denounced in his statement attempts to “harassment, intimidation, surveillance and kidnapping” of people belonging to Chinese ethnic or religious minorities, “including those seeking refuge abroad and US citizens who defend these vulnerable populations.”
The secretary of state called on the Chinese government to “stop” “trying to silence American Uyghur militants” by refusing permits to leave the country requested by their relatives in China.
Chinese government denies accusations
Beijing, which denies the accusations, is accused of having interned more than a million Uyghurs, a Muslim minority living in Xinjiang, in the northwest of the country, in political re-education camps, where it would resort, among other measures, to forced labor.
“We call on the Chinese government to put an end to its genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, its repressive policies in Tibet, its turn of the screw against fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong and human rights violations, and in particular the violations of religious freedom, in other parts of the country,” Blinken concluded.