China has imposed sanctions on almost 30 former officials of the US President Donald Trump's administration, whose term expired today, just a few moments after they left office.
In a statement released just minutes after the inauguration of new US President Joseph Biden, Beijing announced travel bans and business restrictions on Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and United Nations Ambassador Kelly Kraft.
Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro was also fined; his top diplomat for Asia, David Stilwell; Secretary of Health Alex Azar; former national security adviser John Bolton and strategist Stephen Bannon.
The sanctions have little practical significance, but they underscore Beijing's antipathy toward the Trump administration, which it has viewed as hostile.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China explained that "in the past few years, some anti-Chinese politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudices and hatred towards China, and without respecting the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and carried out a series of crazy moves to have seriously interfered in China's internal affairs, undermined China's interests, insulted the Chinese people and seriously disrupted Sino-US relations".
On Tuesday, Pompeo called China's crackdown on Muslim ethnic minorities "genocide," and new U.S. sanctions against Chinese officials are likely to follow.
The Trump administration has been steadily increasing pressure on China since last year, and even more so in recent months. In its final weeks in power, the administration has slapped many Chinese officials with sanctions over their actions in Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.
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