Sanctions placed on two US citizens

China has decided to sanction two United States individuals in accordance with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law in retaliation for recent illegal sanctions by Washington on Chinese officials over alleged "human rights" issues related to the Tibet autonomous region, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The countermeasures against Miles Maochun Yu and Todd Stein took effect on Friday. Yu served as the principal China policy and planning adviser to former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Stein is the deputy staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Their assets within Chinese territory will be frozen, the Foreign Ministry said.

Organizations and individuals in China are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them, and the two men and their immediate family members are banned from acquiring Chinese visas or entry to the country, it said.

The countermeasures were taken after the US imposed sanctions on Dec 9 against Wu Yingjie, secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China between 2016 and 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, a senior public security official in the region.

"China firmly rejects and strongly deplores that the US imposes illegal sanctions on Chinese officials under the pretext of human rights issues in Tibet," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday.

Such acts severely interfere in China's internal affairs and violate the basic norms governing international relations, Mao said at a regular news briefing, while urging Washington to revoke the sanctions.

"The US is in no position to arbitrarily meddle in affairs related to Tibet which are purely China's internal affairs," she said, adding that gross interference in China's internal affairs will meet with resolute countermeasures from the country.