Beijing on Monday said it “firmly opposes” US President Donald Trump’s decision to create a blacklist of countries Washington says unjustly detain Americans, which his administration has said could include China.
In an executive order signed on Friday, Trump said the United States will now designate “state sponsors of wrongful detention”, similar to the powerful tool of branding countries as state sponsors of terrorism.
The Trump administration did not immediately name countries for the new blacklist, but a senior official said that China, Iran and Afghanistan would be under review as they “persistently participate in hostage diplomacy”.
The countries designated by the State Department would be subject to sanctions and US export controls, and officials involved in the imprisonment would be barred from entry.
In one measure rarely taken by the United States, officials said that the State Department could bar US citizens from visiting countries put on the blacklist.
Beijing’s foreign ministry on Monday slammed the new blacklist and said it “firmly opposed” it.
“China is a country governed by the rule of law, and there is absolutely no question of so-called wrongful detention,” spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at a regular briefing.
“As is known to all, wrongful detention, arbitrary detention, coercive diplomacy, long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions are all the monopolies of the United States,” Lin said.
He added: “China, as always, welcomes citizens and enterprises from all countries to visit and conduct business in China.”
Under former president Joe Biden, China released all Americans considered wrongfully detained partly in return for the United States loosening a warning against Americans travelling to the Asian power, advice that had hurt the business climate.
Currently the United States only strictly bans its citizens from travelling to North Korea, a step taken after American student Otto Warmbier was detained in 2016 in the totalitarian state and released the following year in a vegetative state, dying shortly thereafter.
