THE United States (US) unveiled a raft of new rights-abuse sanctions on senior officials and entities in eight countries today, including a firm specialising in facial recognition technology in China and a cartoon studio in North Korea.

Timed for International Human Rights Day and supported in part by Britain and Canada, the sanctions took aim at officials accused of abetting the crackdown on anti-coup protestors in Myanmar, oppression of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, China, and political violence in Bangladesh under the guise of a war on drugs.

“Our actions today, particularly those in partnership with Canada and the United Kingdom, send a message that democracies worldwide will act against those who abuse the power of the state to inflict suffering and repression,” said the US Treasury Department.

It said artificial intelligence company SenseTime and Uighur political leaders in Xinjiang, Shohrat Zakir and Erken Tuniyaz, have taken part in the sweeping oppression of Uighurs.

The blacklisting and sanctions can prevent individuals from obtaining visas to the US, block assets under US jurisdiction and prevent the targets from doing business with individuals or entities in the states – effectively locking them out of the US banking system.

Xinjiang surveillance

Zakir was Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China president from 2018 to 2021, and Tuniyaz is current acting chairman.

Zakir has defended the prison camps as “education centres” that teach people Mandarin and “the true meaning of religion”, but rights organisations have called them a central tool in the government’s “genocidal” policies towards Uighurs.

“The mass detention of Uighurs is part of an effort by (Chinese) authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to create a police state in Xinjiang,” said the Treasury.

SenseTime’s facial recognition programmes are designed in part to be used in Xinjiang against Uighurs and mostly Muslim minorities, more than one million of whom have been incarcerated in prison camps, it added.

The move put new pressure on the company, which is preparing to list its shares in an initial public offering in the coming week on the stock market in Hong Kong.

SenseTime, which Washington says is part of the “military-industrial complex” in China, has already been placed on the US Commerce Department’s blacklist in 2019 because its technology has been used for mass surveillance in Xinjiang.

It strongly criticised the decision, saying in a statement that it is “caught in the middle of geopolitical tension”.

“We strongly oppose the accusations and designation made in connection with it. The accusations are unfounded and reflect a fundamental misperception of our company.”

First Biden sanctions on North Korea

The Treasury also announced the first fresh US sanctions to target North Korea since Joe Biden took office, a move that comes after months of attempting to engage Pyongyang in talks on its nuclear programme.

It accused government-run animation firm SEK Studio and companies and individuals related to it, of exploiting North Korean workers to earn much-needed foreign currency and avoid sanctions on the country.

SEK Studio has an international reputation and contributed work to big-budget animated features including Disney’s Pocahontas and The Lion King.

North Korean People’s Armed Forces Minister Ri Yong-gil has also been hit with sanctions. – AFP, December 11, 2021.