US imposes human rights sanctions on China, Myanmar and North Korea

The United States on Friday imposed sweeping human rights-related sanctions on dozens of individuals and entities linked to China, Myanmar, North Korea and Bangladesh and added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime Group to an investment blacklist.

Canada and the United Kingdom joined the United States in imposing sanctions related to human rights abuse in Myanmar, while Washington also issued the first new sanctions on North Korea under President Joe Biden and targeted military entities. from Myanmar, among others, in an action that marks Human Rights Day.

“Our actions today, particularly those carried out in partnership with the UK and Canada, send a message that democracies around the world will act against those who abuse state power to cause suffering and repression.”Said Treasury Undersecretary Wally Adeyemo in the statement.

North Korea’s mission to the United Nations and the Chinese, Myanmar and Bangladeshi embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department said it added Chinese artificial intelligence company SenseTime to a list of “companies of the Chinese military-industrial complex“Accusing her of having developed facial recognition programs that can determine the ethnicity of a target, with a particular focus on identifying Uighurs.

As a result, an investment ban will apply to US investors.

UN experts and human rights groups estimate that more than a million people, mainly Uighurs and members of other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast system of camps in eastern China’s Xinjiang region.

China denies the abuses in Xinjiang, but the US government and many human rights groups claim that Beijing is carrying out genocide there.