Report: U.S. considering sanctions against Chinese officials over detention of Muslim minorities

For the last several months, the Trump administration has discussed imposing sanctions against senior Chinese government officials in response to Beijing detaining and torturing ethnic Uighurs, a minority Muslim group, in internment camps, current and former U.S. officials told The New York Times.

Officials from the White House, Treasury Department, and State Department have also talked about limiting sales of American surveillance technology that China uses to monitor Uighurs in the northwestern part of the country, the Times reports. On Sunday, Human Rights Watch released a report based on interviews with 58 former residents of Xinjiang who said they were taken to camps where they had to pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and denounce parts of Islam; some also said they were tortured by security officers.

Human Rights Watch said what they are seeing is of a "scope and scale not seen in China since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution," and recommends that countries withhold visas from Chinese officials and control exports of technology. China has not admitted it is detaining Muslims, but has acknowledged enforcing "counter-extremism education."

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