The U.S. sanctioned a top member of China's Communist Party on Thursday, along with three other senior officials and a Chinese entity involved in systematic human rights abuses of Muslim minorities and ethnic Kazakhs in China's western province of Xinjiang.
The action is likely to ratchet up already high tensions between the U.S. and China.
"The United States will not stand idly by as the CCP carries out human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
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