BEIJING – Growing pressure from major world powers is giving the Chinese government more opportunities to show its new approach to international affairs.
In the first coordinated action by Western nations since taking office U.S. President Joe Biden, the U.S., EU, UK and Canada on Monday imposed sanctions on Chinese officials. Countries cited human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region of China, allegations denied by Beijing.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded quickly with its own extensive list of sanctions to EU entities and individuals. These people and their families will not be able to enter mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao, and associated companies and institutions will not be able to do business with China, according to the ministry.
The level of detail about the consequences set out in these sanctions and those announced just when Biden was on jury is different from the more vague sanctions of the past, said Nick Turner, a Hong Kong-based lawyer from the law firm Steptoe & Johnson. . Its thematic coverage includes financial sanctions.
“It demonstrates the natural course of the evolution of a major power,” Turner said. “We could frame it only in terms of reactions in the West, but … I think this is a natural course of development.”
China has become the second largest economy in the world in the last two decades. Its leader, President Xi Jinping, has abolished terms of office and pushed for greater national control, while developing a more aggressive diplomatic voice. In July, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also established the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy research center in Beijing.
And during an annual parliamentary meeting earlier this month, China announced that it would advance foreign affairs legislation, including anti-sanctions measures.
Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute in China and the United States, said that in retaliation for the latest sanctions, Beijing could announce similar restrictions on people in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“You will notice that under Xi Jinping it has become a diplomatic movement that China will reflect and amplify whatever is done to it, in the form of sanctions,” Daly told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday.
– CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee contributed to this report.