The European Union has imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials over their alleged roles in the human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in northwest China. The EU sanctions, announced on March 22, are targeted at “the large-scale arbitrary detentions of, in particular, Uyghurs in Xinjiang in China,” said the European Council, an EU body that comprises the heads of state of the EU member countries. The listed individuals will have their assets in the EU frozen and will be banned from travelling to the bloc. EU citizens and businesses will not be allowed to provide any financial assistance to them. This is the first time the EU has imposed targeted sanctions on Chinese officials under the new EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, which was adopted on Dec. 7, 2020. In response, China’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that it will sanction 10 individuals and four entities on the EU …