By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said that Hong Kong’s offered bounties for six more pro-democracy campaigners who were deemed to have violated national security laws and the revoking of the passports of seven more amounted to intimidation efforts.
The State Department also separately condemned China for taking steps against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in human rights issues concerning the Uyghurs and Tibet.
“We reject the Hong Kong government’s efforts to intimidate and silence individuals who choose to make the United States their home,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Thursday, adding some of the targeted individuals were based in the United States.
There was no immediate response from China’s foreign ministry to Reuters’ request for comment on the State Department’s condemnations.
China-imposed national security legislation in Hong Kong has triggered U.S. sanctions and has been used to jail pro-democracy activists after violent street protests in 2019.
China’s office for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong said on Tuesday it supported the actions, as the individuals had engaged in “anti-China” and destabilising acts.
Beijing on Sunday separately targeted Canada-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibet Committee by announcing measures including asset freezes and bans on entry.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labour in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.
China seized control of Tibet in 1950. International human rights groups and exiles have routinely condemn what they call China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; additional reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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