Eurasia Press & News
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) is demanding answers from the Biden administration on what is being done in response to China’s sanctions on Trump administration officials, according to a Wednesday letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.
In the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Tuberville said the sanctions by China, which bar 28 former officials from entering or conducting business in China, were an “affront” to the United States. The Alabama senator called on Biden’s State Department to divulge the actions it “has taken or intends to take in response to China’s actions.”
“Each of these Americans served our country with honor and distinction,” Tuberville wrote of the sanctioned Americans, a group that includes former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien. “China’s affront to these public servants and our nation cannot stand.”
The State Department declined to comment on Tuberville’s letter but called the sanctions against Trump administration officials “counterproductive.”
“Beijing’s sanctions against members of the previous administration are counterproductive and are clearly at odds with its purported desire for improved relations,” a department spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement.
The list of sanctioned officials also includes former U.N. ambassador Kelly Craft along with several other officials who oversaw the administration’s China policy. Beijing said that the sanctions were issued as a result of so-called China hatred in the Trump administration’s foreign policy.
The Biden administration condemned the sanctions in January but has been mum on the issue since.
