China sends retaliatory note to Trump, blacklists US Republican Senators

China has sent a retaliatory note to the United States, blacklisting Republican senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

The retaliatory action which was announced on Monday July 13, 2020, came days after Washington blacklisted a number of Chinese politicians for alleged human rights abuses of the Uighur minority.

While disclosing this, spokeswoman of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, stated that the measures also targeted Republican Congressman Chris Smith, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China and Sam Brownback, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

Last week, the US imposed visa bans and asset freezes on several Chinese officials, including the Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, over the alleged abuses in the western region.

"We urge the US to immediately withdraw its wrong decision, and stop any words and actions that interfere in China's internal affairs and harm China's interests," Hua said.

"China will make a further response depending on the development of the situation," he added.

Washington and Beijing have been locked in squabbles over series of issues ranging from trade, coronavirus pandemic, a security law in Hong Kong to Chinese policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Witnesses and human rights groups say that China has rounded up more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in a vast brainwashing campaign aimed at forcibly homogenising minorities into the country's Han majority.

While justifying US' action against China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained that the US was acting against horrific and systematic abuses in the region including forced labour, mass detention and involuntary population control.