From Fortune Magazine:



China has announced it is banning a U.S. research company and two analysts who have reported extensively on claims of human rights abuses against Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, in northwestern China. The Los Angeles-based research and data analytics firm Kharon, its director of investigations, Edmund Xu, and Nicole Morgret, a human rights analyst, are among those impacted by the ban. China says the sanctions are retaliation for a yearly U.S. government report on human rights in Xinjiang. The banned individuals had reported on coercive labor regimes aimed at forcibly assimilating Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. China has long denied such allegations, claiming the large-scale network of prison-like facilities was intended to combat extremism and teach job skills.

China has tightened restrictions on the movement of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, and access to the region by journalists, diplomats, and others is tightly controlled. The U.S. has imposed visa bans and sanctions on dozens of officials from China and Hong Kong, emphasizing growing tensions between the two countries. The banned individuals could not be immediately reached for comment, and it is not clear what connections, if any, they have with the U.S. government.



Read more: China bans U.S. researchers who reported on alleged human rights abuses