On March 22, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two current Chinese government officials for the arbitrary detention, physical mistreatment, and commission of other serious human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim population indigenous to Xinjiang, and other ethnic minorities in the region. These OFAC designations are intended to complement similar sanctions imposed by the EU, the UK and Canada against these individuals and others, in a global effort to form a unified front to combat serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang by disrupting the perpetrators’ access to the international financial system.
Wang Junzheng, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), and Chen Mingguo, the Director of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), were designated pursuant to Executive Order 13818 which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Right Accountability Act targeting perpetrators of serious human right abuse and corruption. The XPCC is a paramilitary organization that was designated by OFAC in July of 2020 for serious human rights abuses; because of this, Wang has been designated pursuant to EO 13818 for acting or purporting to act on behalf of the XPCC. OFAC also designated the XPSB in July of 2020 for being complicit in or engaging in serious human right abuses. Consequently Chen has been designated pursuant to EO 13818 for being a leader or official of the XPSB.
As a result of these designations, all US property is blocked, and any transactions with these persons are generally prohibited. In addition, any entity in the US that is owned fifty percent or more by a sanctioned person is also blocked.