China Sanctions 2 Canadian Groups Against Uigur, Tibet | World news

China said on Sunday that it is taking countermeasures against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in humanitarian issues related to the Uighurs and Tibet.

The measures, which took effect on Saturday, include asset freezes and entry bans, and targets include Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee, China’s foreign ministry said on its website.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses against Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuse.

China took control of Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” from feudal serfdom. However, international human rights groups and exiles have routinely condemned what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.

For the two institutions, China said it was freezing their “movable property, immovable property and other types of property within the territory of China”. It freezes the property in China of 15 people in the Uyghur institution and five in the Tibet Committee, banning them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.