China announced reciprocal countermeasures on Tuesday against four members of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, barring them from entering the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.

 

The four members are the commission's chairwoman Nadine Maenza, vice-chairman Nury Turkel, and commissioners Anurima Bhargava and James W. Carr.

 

The measures were imposed in response to US sanctions announced earlier this month against four Chinese officials over so-called human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily news conference.