The council of the European Union has declared it will extend its global sanctions against officials and entities responsible for serious human rights abuses by one year, while emphasizing the importance of supporting human rights. On Dec. 6, four days ahead of Human Rights Day, the council announced it would continue to penalize violators of human rights in various countries on its sanction list for another year until Dec. 8, 2022. The list includes are four Chinese Community Party (CCP) officials and one entity, all involving the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where large populations of Uyghurs reside. “Today’s decision confirms the EU’s commitment to denounce human rights violations and abuses wherever they occur, making use of all instruments, while reasserting that human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated,” the council emphasized in a statement. “Just a few days ago, the Chinese leadership was under the illusion that the EU …