The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on two Chinese government officials, Gao Qi and Hu Lianhe, for their involvement in ongoing serious human rights abuses in Uyghur homeland. Gao, the leader of the Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Public Security Bureau, has been linked to a range of serious human rights abuses, as reported in the State’s Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) report. Gao is sanctioned under UHRPA, as amended, and designated under E.O. 13818. Concurrently, the Department of State is imposing visa restrictions on Gao for his role in arbitrary detention. Hu Lianhe, Deputy Office Director for the “Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group”, played a significant role in shaping and implementing “Xinjiang” policies, including the controversial ‘de-extremification’ through a re-education campaign. Hu is designated under E.O. 13818 for engaging in such activities.
The statement reads as follows:
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.
Hu has served as the Deputy Office Director for the Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group of the Central Committee (XWCSG) since 2012. The XWCSG, first formed in 2000, has been instrumental in shaping and implementing Xinjiang policies. As a part of its core role in setting policy in Xinjiang, the XWCSG engaged in direct and close involvement in the PRC’s March 2017 “XUAR De-Extremification Regulation,” and its October 2018 revision, which provided the framework for Xinjiang’s “de-extremification” through re-education campaign. The regulation created a presumptive legal basis for Xinjiang’s re-education internment campaign in the eyes of the PRC government. According to an August 2022 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) assessment, detainees reported having been subjected to beatings, interrogation with water being poured over their faces, prolonged solitary confinement, sexual violence, and invasive gynecological examinations.
Hu is being designated for being a foreign person who is or has been a leader or official of an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsection (ii)(A) of Section 1(a) of E.O. 13818.
