China fires back after Hawley proposes sanctions on Xi

Officials in China this week called out Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) after he proposed sanctions on Chinese President Xi Jinping for human rights abuses in the country. 

In a letter sent to Hawley’s office on Monday, first reported by Axios, Chinese Embassy counselor Li Xiang wrote that the lawmaker’s proposed bill would “grossly interfere” with the country’s internal affairs, citing Hawley’s action as “arrogant and despicable.” 

Li said the Chinese Communist Party “has always maintained a close bond with the people” and that the party’s task is to build China into “a great modern socialist country.” 

“Senator Hawley is trying to smear the 20th CPC National Congress and the leadership of the CPC, to divide the relationship between the CPC and the Chinese people, and even dare to claim to ‘sanction’ China’s top leadership, which are blatantly working against the more than 96 million Party members and the 1.4 billion Chinese people, and are pure wishful thinking and will get nowhere,” Li wrote in his letter. 

Li also denounced the accusations that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region of the country, referring to it as an “out-and-out lie,” and said authorities have implemented “decisive measures” to fight the ongoing “terrorism” and “separatism” in the region. Li added that the region “has enjoyed sustained economic growth, social harmony and stability, better living standards,” as well as “freedom of religious beliefs and religious harmony.”

China’s response comes after Hawley introduced legislation to sanction Xi along with other prominent Chinese officials over human rights violations against the Uyghur people, saying, “We must hold Xi and his lieutenants accountable for their crimes against humanity and we can start by imposing real costs for their complicity in the atrocities in Xinjiang.”

The Chinese Embassy also dismissed the United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights August report on human rights violations in the Xinjiang region as “completely illegal, null and void,” adding it was orchestrated and produced by the U.S. and its Western allies. 

“The Chinese side urges Senator Hawley to abandon the Cold-War zero-sum mentality and ideological prejudice against China, look at CPC and Chinese government’s Xinjiang policy correctly, stop the advancement of this bill, stop any attack and smear against CPC and Chinese leadership, stop any action to undermine China’s sovereignty and security, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path,” Li concluded in his letter. “Please immediately pass along the above solemn positions to Senator Hawley himself.”