China Drafts Law to Punish Countries that Sanction It for Human Rights Atrocities

China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), is considering a law that would formalize retaliation against other nations for sanctions against China for its human rights abuses, state-run media reported on Tuesday.

China’s state-run Xinhua news service portrayed the draft law as China striking back at dishonest critics who unfairly accuse it of atrocities.

“For some time … some Western countries have used Xinjiang and Hong Kong-related issues as part of their pretexts to spread rumors on and smear, contain and suppress China,” Xinhua argued, citing a “spokesperson office of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee.” Xinjiang is the country’s westernmost region, home to the nation’s ethnic Uyghur minority. Multiple free states, including America, have declared China’s policy of concentration camp incarceration, forced sterilizations, torture, and slavery against the Uyghurs a genocide.