The Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China announced the imposition of sanctions and restrictions against a number of British representatives in response to London's sanctions against China.
"China has decided to impose sanctions on nine British officers and four organizations that maliciously spread lies and misinformation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
According to the official, the British side imposed unilateral sanctions against Chinese individuals and legal entities under the pretext of the so-called human rights problem in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
"This move, based on lies and misinformation, is a gross violation of international law and basic norms of international relations, it constitutes gross interference in the internal affairs of China and seriously undermines Sino-British relations," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in a statement.
Sanctioned individuals and their family members will be banned from entering China, their property in China will be frozen.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed that China reserved the right to take further measures to protect national sovereignty.
"China is determined to firmly defend its national sovereignty, security and interests of development, and we urge the British side to stop following the wrong path," the ministry said in a statement.
On March 22, the European Union approved new sanctions against eleven individuals and four companies, including those from Russia and China, implicated, according to the EU, in human rights violations. The blacklist included four individuals and one organization in China "for the persecution of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang."
The same day, the Chinese government imposed sanctions on ten MPs, academics and politicians, as well as four EU legal entities for interfering in the internal affairs of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the PRC.