US sanctions Xinjiang Paramilitary Settler Corps and senior officials as China-US Cold War escalates

The Trump administration on Friday imposed sanctions on a large Chinese paramilitary colonial enterprise in Xinjiang and two Chinese officials, to an extent that could push US-China relations to new lows. The action could be an opening round of new sanctions against state-owned enterprises and other government agencies in China.

The move, announced by the Treasury Department on Friday, blacklists the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC); Sun Jinlong, former political commissar of the XPCC; and Peng Jiarui, deputy party secretary and commander of the XPCC, for human rights violations linked to the widespread repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

The announcement is a significant escalation for the Trump administration, which has relied heavily on sanctions as a brutal foreign policy instrument to punish adversaries in Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. It also sheds light on a powerful and covert organization that controls much of the regional economy in the western Xinjiang region, where more than a million Uyghurs have been trained in so-called re-education camps under cover. counterterrorism operations or forced to work for Chinese companies.

The XPCC, better known as Bingtuan (the Corps), is the cutting edge of Chinese colonialism in Xinjiang. It was established as a way to transform the many former Nationalist and Communist soldiers adrift at the end of the decades-long civil war into a force that would colonize and stabilize the border region, similar to the land grants given to soldiers. Romans in the newly conquered countries. territories. These farmer-soldiers would colonize the land and defend it against external aggression and against an unruly local population.

The members of the XPCC are mainly from the ethnic majority of Han Chinese; only around 7% of its 2.7 million members today are Uyghurs. Many of them are the children and grandchildren of the first settlers. The military presence has been reduced, although it still maintains a militia. Instead, it has become a stunning state within its own cities, healthcare and even TV channels.

This is not so unusual in China, where the scale of state-owned enterprises often turns them into separate fiefdoms. Before being disbanded in a massive anti-corruption purge in 2013, for example, the Ministry of Railways had its own police, universities, and judges. Due to its massive agricultural presence and extensive factory ownership, XPCC is a major player in Xinjiang’s economy, controlling at least 20% of the region’s GDP.

The Friday designations mark one of the first times the United States has sanctioned senior Chinese government officials or a large Chinese state entity with sanctions for human rights violations in Chinapast. The sanctions have targeted officials. lower-ranking or intelligence personnel, as well as much smaller entities on sanctions. violations over North Korea and Iran. The sanctions were enforced under the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016, which authorizes US government authorities to sanction foreign entities and personnel complicit in human rights violations.

This is notable because it’s one of the first times they’ve taken on a company in China with Global Magnitsky sanctions, said Brian OToole, former Treasury and CIA official and senior non-official researcher. -resident of the Atlantic Council. This suggests that perhaps more companies could be in the crosshairs. That would be the idea, if you do this smart you start with one entity and then move on to the next, essentially trying to discourage others from doing the same things, he said.

The sanctions represent another sign of deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, following diplomatic battles over trade, the coronavirus pandemic and US accusations of Chinese industrial espionage. The United States this month ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, and China responded by shutting down the US consulate in Chengdu, as senior Chinese and Trump administration officials escalated a war of words that mimic the toughest days of the Cold War.

We see the Chinese Communist Party for what it is: the central threat of our time, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday during a Senate hearing.

A number of new fronts have opened in the competition between Washington and Beijing, said Kristine Lee of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank. But the growing attention to Xinjiang reflects a growing bipartisan consensus on the need to take action against the reprehensible human rights violations that the CCP has perpetuated with impunity and this is also consistent with the ideological formulation of the competition. by the Trump administrations.

It is not yet clear how China will respond to the sanctions, but Chinese officials have taken an increasingly aggressive stance towards the United States and its allies since Xi Jinping came to power. Beijing has hit back against US sanctions with its own sanctions against some US lawmakers in recent months, accusing Washington of interfering in China’s international affairs. However, the Chinese elite are much more tied to the United States, where many wealthy people, including senior officials, have financial interests or send their children to education than the other way around.

There are also signs that China is seeking to establish financial networks that would not be beholden to US sanctions, although some experts question the feasibility of such measures. A new report from the Bank of China recommended The country is now withdrawing from the SWIFT financial messaging system that underpins virtually all transactions in global financial markets in anticipation of further US sanctions.

The sanctions risk making it difficult for any American company to operate with partners in Xinjiang, because the XPCC is so influential in the region. As the crackdown has intensified in Xinjiang in recent years, the Corps has begun to play an even more powerful role, assuming responsibilities previously held by city governments. Lauren Hansen Restrepo, professor specializing in the governance of Xinjiang, describes this as a totalitarian land policy, in which previously more flexible policies are replaced by a vision of powerful central institutions dominated by the Han. The XPCC operates its own courts and prison systems, which have played an important role in suppressing Uyghur culture, religion and family life. Applying measures to small businesses can be difficult, but larger companies with their own compliance departments are likely to sever business relationships. Some groups, like theBetter Cotton Initiative, have links already broken with the producers of the Corps.

Former U.S. government officials describe the sanctions against the XPCC and other Chinese officials as an important signal that Washington will not allow the massive crackdowns in Xinjiang to continue without retaliation. It may also signal a willingness to target other large organizations, such as state-owned enterprises involved in building bases in China in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, than the United States. illegal judge under international law. However, they admit that sanctions alone are unlikely to cause Beijing to change course.

They are an important part of a broader policy to combat human rights violations in China, said David Mortlock, sanctions expert and former director of international economic affairs at the White House during the Obama administration. Sanctions in themselves are certainly a positive step, but they alone will not be enough to get China to change its behavior, and the administration must realize that this is not the end of this effort.