The United States is imposing visa restrictions on certain employees of Chinese technology companies, including Huawei, for providing “material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.''

Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said telecommunications companies around the world should also ''consider themselves on notice” that if they do business with Huawei, ''they are doing business with human rights abusers.''

The announcement is seen as the latest move to punish Chinese Communist Party's alleged human rights abuses against China's minority Muslim population.

''Companies impacted by today's action include Huawei, an arm of the CCP's surveillance state that censors political dissidents and enables mass internment camps in Xinjiang and the indentured servitude of its population shipped all over China. Certain Huawei employees provide material support to the CCP regime that commits human rights abuses,'' said Pompeo in a separate statement.

The State Department did not provide specific names of employees of Chinese technology companies affected by the visa restrictions.

The U.S. move also came a day after the British government announced it would ban Huawei from playing a role in the development of Britain's next generation 5G network. Washington says Huawei could provide the Chinese Communist Party a ''back door'' for spying, a claim that Huawei rejects.

The relationship between the world's two leading economies is seen as at its lowest point in decades.

In Beijing, China threatened Tuesday to impose sanctions on a U.S. aerospace company Lockheed Martin Corp., in response to Washington's approval of a potential deal for Taiwan to buy parts to revamp defensive missiles built by the company.

China has urged the U.S. to stop arms sale to Taiwan to ''avoid further harming Sino-U.S. ties and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.''  China claims democratically self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory.

Source : VOA