U.S. issues additional visa restrictions on Chinese officials (updated)

TCL Electronics Holdings

21/12/2020 17:38

(Adds Chinese ministry comment, paragraphs 2,14-15)
    By Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom
    WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The United States on Monday
imposed additional visa restrictions on Chinese officials over
alleged human rights abuses, taking further action against China
in the final month of U.S. President Donald Trump's term.
    China said it would retaliate.
    Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the restrictions
affected officials believed to be responsible for or complicit
in repressing religious practitioners, ethnic minority groups,
dissidents and others.
    "China's authoritarian rulers impose draconian restrictions
on the Chinese people's freedoms of expression, religion or
belief, association, and the right to peaceful assembly. The
United States has been clear that perpetrators of human rights
abuses like these are not welcome in our country," he said in a
statement.
    U.S.-China relations have plunged to their worst level in
decades as the world's top two economies spar over issues
ranging from the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing's national
security law for Hong Kong, trade and espionage.
    On Friday, Washington added dozens of Chinese companies,
including top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing
International Corp  0981.HK  and drone manufacturer SZ DJI
Technology Co Ltd, to a trade blacklist.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IY0S3
    Also on Monday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief
Chad Wolf said it was looking at further restrictions on China,
which he called an ever-increasing threat to the United States.
    Wolf told the Heritage Foundation think tank these included
tighter visa curbs on Chinese Communist Party members and a
broader ban on goods made with forced labor. He said DHS was
also reviewing the activities of Chinese television maker TCL
Electronics Holdings  1070.HK .
    Wolf noted a State Department action this month to reduce
the validity of U.S. visas for members of China's ruling
Communist Party to one month.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2IJ0AU
    "We're ... working with State to consider further
restrictions on visa validity periods for CCP members," he
added.
    He said DHS was "continuing to develop and hoped to soon
issue" a region-wide ban covering "key categories of products
produced with forced labor" in China's Xinjiang region.
    Wolf did not elaborate, but he was apparently referring to a
broad import ban on all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang
that the Trump administration considered this year before opting
for narrower bans on products from specific entities.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2II30S
    U.S. apparel makers have criticized a broader ban as
impossible to enforce.
    China condemned the U.S. measures.
    "We will take countermeasures in response. We will take
measures against those who are responsible for harming our
bilateral relations," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin
told a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
    Wolf said DHS would soon issue a business advisory
cautioning against using data services and equipment from firms
linked to China and said it was "reviewing entities such as the
Chinese manufacturer TCL," the world's third largest
manufacturer of TV sets.
    Wolf said it had been discovered this year that the firm had
"incorporated backdoors into all its TV sets, exposing users to
cyber breaches and data exfiltration." 
    Wolf said DHS would soon release a "Strategic Action Plan to
counter the People's Republic of China" that would draw on
Trump's 2017 national security strategy and a 2020 document
laying out a U.S. strategic approach to Beijing. He did not
elaborate on this.

 (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom; Editing
by Susan Heavey and Richard Chang)
 ((sheavey@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 843 6600;))