US imposes restrictions on Thai officials for deporting Uyghurs to China

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The United States has imposed visa restrictions on current and former Thai officials who participated in the forced restoration of Muslims in Ouigor, as part of a new policy to support torture groups in China.

This policy will target foreign officials who are involved in efforts to restore ethnic or religious minorities by force at risk of persecution against China.

“We are committed to combating China’s efforts to pressure governments to restore forced Uygur and other groups to China, where they are subject to torture and enforced disappearance,” said Marco Rubio, Foreign Minister.

“In light of the actions of genocide and crimes against humanity for a long time in China, we call on governments all over the world not to return the Uighurs and power to other groups to China.”

Rubio said the procedure against the current officials whose name and the former Thai were in response to their participation in forcing 40 Uighurs to return to China in late February. Thailand is an ally of the United States Defense Treaty, but the country is tense than giving China, which is more important for the southeastern nation than a commercial perspective.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not determined the visa restrictions, but these measures generally indicate the refusal of visas to enter the United States. Rubio said that measures can also apply to family members from any official who has been found to facilitate the homeland.

Uyghur is a Turkish ethnic minority from the northwestern China region of Xinjiang. In 2022, the High Commissioner for Human Rights was accused of Beijing of linking “serious human rights violations” to the way it was dealt with with Uighurs and other Islamic ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

China has forced over time over more than 1 million Uyigor on the detention camps in Xinjiang, which has caused criticism from many countries around the world. Beijing has repeatedly denied that he had persecuted Ouigor.

This policy is an early indication of how President Donald Trump responds to human rights violations that involve China. At the end of his first term, Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of linking the genocide. Behind him in the management of Joe Biden, Anthony Blink, later repeated the accusation.

Rubio was one of the most prominent critics and human rights record of China when he served in the US Senate, along with Mike Waltz, a former member of the Green Army and Florida, and he is now a national security adviser.

Many Chinese experts believe that Trump wants to reach a type of wide deal with Beijing, which involves trade and other issues. One thing they watch is how the president and his responsibilities talk about alleged human rights violations in China, given the effects of any broader negotiations with President Xi Jinping.