- China retaliates with visa restrictions on U.S. individuals following U.S.-imposed travel restrictions .
- The visa restrictions are a response to allegations of China’s involvement in the “forced assimilation”.
- This latest development further strains China-U.S. relations, which were already fraught with disputes.
In a retaliatory move, China has announced visa restrictions on U.S. individuals, escalating tensions between the two nations. The decision comes shortly after the United States imposed travel restrictions on Chinese officials. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, stated that these visa restrictions would target U.S. individuals known for spreading rumors or extensively involving themselves in Tibet-related issues.
Wang Wenbin criticized the United States for imposing what China deems illegal sanctions on Chinese officials. These sanctions were based on what China claims are fabricated allegations about Tibet, ignoring established facts. Wang emphasized that such actions represent a severe interference in China’s internal affairs, harm China’s interests, and violate international norms governing relations between nations.
He urged the U.S. to respect the truth, change its stance, refrain from disseminating disinformation about Tibet, and cease meddling in China’s internal matters.
The background of this retaliation centers on the U.S.’s imposition of restrictions related to Chinese officials’ alleged involvement in the “forced assimilation” of over a million children within state-run boarding schools in Tibet. While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not disclose the identities of those facing restrictions, he called on China in August to halt its “coercive” policies in Tibet.
Blinken expressed concern that these policies aimed to erase Tibet’s unique linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions among younger generations.
The U.S. is not alone in expressing apprehensions about China’s policies in Tibet. In February, a group of United Nations experts raised concerns that the residential school system in Tibet seemed to function as a mandatory program designed to assimilate Tibetans into the dominant Han culture.
These recent visa restrictions add to a growing list of contentious issues driving a wedge between China and the United States. These include trade disputes, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, treatment of the predominantly Muslim Uighurs, and tensions over the situation in Taiwan.
Chinese authorities have dismissed the U.S. visa restrictions as “smears” that have a detrimental impact on China-U.S. relations. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, defended the boarding schools, explaining that they were established to cater to the educational needs of the local population.
Liu emphasized that these boarding schools, which have become an important educational mode in China’s ethnic minority areas, address the challenge of providing education to scattered local communities effectively.