Today, OFAC sanctioned two PRC government officials for their connection to ongoing serious human rights abuse in Xinjiang. Treasury is taking this action in conjunction with the Department of State’s (State) issuance of the “Report to Congress on the Imposition of Sanctions Pursuant to Section 6(a) of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) of 2020, P.L. 116-145.” Gao Qi (Gao)is being sanctioned as required under UHRPA, as amended by the Act of December 23, 2021 (Pub. L. 117-78) and designated pursuant to E.O. 13818. Hu Lianhe (Hu) is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 in support of UHRPA objectives.
Gao has served as the leader of the Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (Yili Prefecture) Public Security Bureau, an organization subordinate to the previously designated Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), and as Yili Prefecture’s vice governor. Gao stated in June 2018 that Xinjiang must “resolutely follow the demand of Party Secretary Chen to place the untrustworthy in a trustworthy place … to slowly transform them.” Since then, public security officials in Yili Prefecture have engaged in a range of serious human rights abuses.
Gaois identified in the aforementioned State UHRPA report as a foreign person, including any official of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, who is responsible for any of the following with respect to Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, members of other Muslim minority groups, or other persons in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: torture; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; prolonged detention without charges and trial; causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons; other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons; or serious human rights abuses in connection with forced labor. Accordingly, Gao is being sanctioned as required under UHRPA, as amended. He is also being designated under E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is or has been a leader or official of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse relating to his tenure. OFAC designated the XPSB on July 9, 2020,for being a foreign person responsible for, or complicit in, or that has directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse. The Department of State is concurrently announcing visa restrictions against Gao under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights, specifically arbitrary detention. Pursuant to Section 7031(c), Gao and his immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.
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.
