BEIJING - China has barred entry to four people from a U.S. commission on religious freedom after U.S. sanctions against Chinese people and entities over human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has four people, would be banned from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
At a regular briefing in Beijing, Zhao said that their assets in China would be frozen and Chinese institutions and citizens would be forbidden from dealing with them.
The United States said that its Dec. 10 sanctions were a response to human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were alleged to have been unlawfully detained, mistreated and forced to work. China denies that its policies there help combat extremism in Xinjiang.
The U.SCIRF is a federal government entity that evaluates and recommends policies for countries where religious freedom is deemed to be endangered.
The chair, vice chair and two commissioners at the USCIRF would be barred entry, Zhao said.