(Bloomberg) — Washington will impose visa restrictions on some officials in China for their part in forcing Tibetan children to assimilate into mainstream Chinese society, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
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“We urge the authorities of the People’s Republic of China to end the coercion of Tibetan children to attend government-run boarding schools and end repressive policies of assimilation, both in Tibet and in other parts of the country. the People’s Republic of China,” said Blinken, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Such coercive policies aim to eliminate Tibet’s specific linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among the younger generations of Tibetans, he added.
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The move, days before a high-profile visit by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, angered Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that Washington’s “illegal” sanctions were a “serious move” that disrupted China’s domestic affairs. “We strongly oppose it and strongly condemn it,” he said.
A State Department press release did not name any officials.
The US on Monday had lifted restrictions on 27 Chinese companies and organizations, an apparent olive branch ahead of Raimondo’s trip to Beijing, scheduled for August 27-30.
A United Nations team of experts said in February that about one million children from the Tibetan minority are affected by Chinese government policies designed to assimilate the Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically through a boarding school system. China condemned their findings.
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Blinken’s move was welcomed by Tibetan activists. “China’s unscrupulous segregation of Tibetan children and their families cannot go unchecked,” said Tencho Gyatso, president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet. “It shows the depth of Beijing’s plan to eliminate the Tibetan way of life and turn Tibetans into loyal followers” of the Chinese Communist Party.
–With help from Maria Luiza Rabello and Dan Murtaugh.
(Updates with comments from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the fourth paragraph.)
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