China sanctions two Americans over Tibet rights controversy

BEIJING (Reuters) -China has sanctioned two Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against two Chinese officials over human rights in Tibet earlier this month, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

Anti-sanctions measures against historian Miles Yu and Todd Stein, deputy staff director with the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will take effect from Friday, according to an order signed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and announced on a ministry social media account on Friday.

According to this order, the Chinese measures are in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on two Chinese officials by the United States on Dec. 9 over human rights issues in the Chinese western frontier region of Tibet.

China will freeze all Chinese assets of Yu and Stein, and ban any organisation or individual within China from engaging with them. Both men and their family members are also banned from entering China.

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jacqueline Wong)