China has levied restrictions against 28 high ranking US officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that were in former President Donald Trump’s cabinet. The Chinese government claimed that these individuals had been partaking in prejudice and hatred against China, carrying on Trump’s aggressive foreign policy against China.
This development comes hours after the new US President Joe Biden was sworn into office. The Chinese Foreign Ministry described 28 banned officials as anti-Chinese politicians working to damage the relationship between the US and China.
The 28 officials banned by China include former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, his former deputy Matt Pottinger, former trade adviser Peter Navarro, health secretary Alex Azar, the former assistant of Trump Steve Bannon and former security adviser John Bolton. Navarro had told a news agency that these restrictions are a badge of honor from the dictatorship that has killed millions with its virus.
The 28 former officials and any close familial relations will be restricted entry to the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao as per the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Any companies and organisations related to these officials or their family will also be prevented from operating in China.
China also accused them of planning, encouraging and executing “a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations”.
Trump’s government has constantly pressured China of taking the blame for coronavirus and recently, as a final move, accused the Chinese government for the massacre of Uyghur Muslims and another ethnic cleansing in the region of Xinjiang.
