China, on Wednesday, imposed sanctions against former US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and 27 other officials of the Trump administration.
The action came 24 hours after Pompeo accused China of genocide against Uighur Muslims.
The announcement was made as Joe Biden took oath of office as President.
China said Pompeo and others had “executed a series of crazy moves, gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-US relations”.
Former officials affected are trade chief, Peter Navarro; national security advisers Robert O’Brien and John Bolton; health secretary, Alex Azar; UN ambassador Kelly Craft, and Steve Bannon.
The ex-appointees and immediate family members would be banned from entering China, Hong Kong or Macao; companies and institutions associated with them can no longer do do business with China.
Pompeo’s incoming successor, Anthony Blinken, agreed with Pompeo’s comment.
“The forcing of men, women and children into concentration camps; trying to, in effect, re-educate them to be adherents to the ideology of the Chinese Communist party, all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide,” Blinken said.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, told the media that Pompeo has made so many lies in recent years.
“This US politician is notorious for lying and cheating, is making himself a laughing stock and a clown. We hope the new US administration can have their own reasonable and cool-minded judgment on Xinjiang issues, among other issues’, she said.
China sanctions Mike Pompeo, 27 other Trump officials
