The United States on Monday issued additional visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials believed to have engaged in human rights abuses, including cracking down on freedoms of speech and belief. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement the restrictions affect officials believed to be responsible for or complicit in repressing religious practitioners, ethnic minority groups, dissidents, and others. “China’s authoritarian rulers impose draconian restrictions on the Chinese people’s freedoms of expression, religion or belief, association, and the right to peaceful assembly. The United States has been clear that perpetrators of human rights abuses like these are not welcome in our country,” Pompeo said. Various religious and dissident groups are repressed by China’s communist regime, including house Christians, practitioners of Falun Gong, monks in Tibet, and Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Pompeo said the United States “stands with the many individuals persecuted for their peaceful efforts to exercise their …