New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith went on Fox News Tuesday to respond to sanctions placed on him, which ban him and other lawmakers from traveling to China. Smith slammed the Chinese government accusing it of “genocide.”
The Chinese sanctions were announced Monday in response to U.S. sanctions issued earlier this month. The Chinese sanctions will apply to three lawmakers; Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Chris Smith, as well as U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback. The Chinese government asserted that the sanctions would be comparable to U.S. sanctions, which blocked property transactions with four Chinese officials and barred travel to the U.S. for three of the officials, according to the Associated Press. (RELATED: Beijing Sanctions US Lawmakers Who Called Out China’s Abuses Against Uighur Population)
Smith had previously appeared on The Ingraham Angle in May, where he accused China of “crushing religious freedom” and “the pervasive use of torture.” The Chinese Government had threatened Smith with sanctions in response to some of his recently introduced bills, one of which would have allowed Americans to sue China for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Smith joined America’s Newsroom Tuesday to respond directly to the Chinese government sanctions. Smith called the move “outrageous and a further manifestation of the bullying of Xi Jinping, the maximum dictator of China.” Smith doubled down on his criticisms accusing the Chinese government of subjecting the Uighur Muslim community to “genocide” and “concentration camps.”
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Smith accused China more broadly of “exporting its maligned influence all over the world” and said that “we need to stand up to it.” He stated that a number of other religious minorities were being “coerced into following Xi Jinping’s principles of Marxism.” Smith also noted that he had previously been denied a visa to enter China after meeting with dissidents prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.