US Research Firm Curbed Over Alleged Xinjiang Spying

12/27/2023 3:17:28 PM

(MENAFN- Asia Times) A California-based consulting firm and its two researchers were sanctioned by the Chinese government over their work related to human rights issues in northwestern China's Xinjiang region.

In accordance with its Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, China will freeze the mainland property of Kharon as it has long collected Xinjiang-related sensitive information and provided so-called evidence for America's illegal sanctions related to Xinjiang, said Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Edmund Xu, director of investigations of Kharon, and Nicole Morgret, former researcher of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, will be prohibited from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, Mao said. Their property will also be frozen while organizations and individuals will be prohibited from having transactions and cooperation with them, she said.

The curbs came after two Chinese officials and three Chinese companies were sanctioned by the US for allegedly suppressing Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

The two Chinese officials are Gao Qi, chief inspector of the Yili Prefecture Public Security Bureau in Xinjiang, and Hu Lianhe, deputy director general of the United Front Work Department's Eighth Bureau on Xinjiang.

They were accused of having arbitrarily detained and imprisoned Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in vocational skills education and training centers in Xinjiang since 2017.

The duo were among the 37 people , who were sanctioned by the US, the United Kingdom and Canada under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program on December 8, ahead of the Human Rights Day on December 10.

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