OFAC is designating two individuals involved in serious human rights abuse in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC has targeted Tibetans under “social stability work” programs for decades. Tibetans have been subject to serious human rights abuse in the TAR, including arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and physical abuse, as part of the PRC’s efforts to severely restrict religious freedoms.
Wu Yingjie (Wu) was the TAR Party Secretary between 2016 and 2021. During this timeframe, Wu directed government officials to engage in “stability policies.” The implementation of these stability policies involved serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions in the TAR. Additional abuses during Wu’s tenure include forced sterilization, coerced abortion, restrictions on religious and political freedoms, and the torture of prisoners.
Wu is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
