Washington: 28 March 2021:  Biden said in proposal with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid a row over sanctions against abuses targeting the Uighur minority in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.“I suggested we should have, essentially, a similar initiative coming from the democratic states, helping those communities around the world that, in fact, need help,” Biden told reporters, referring to Belt and Road.

Beijing’s influence has grown in some nations in recent years through loans and projects under the initiative, raising concerns among regional powers and Western nations.

Between 2000 and 2018, 23.1 percent of the $251 billion invested by China’s two biggest policy banks on overseas energy projects was spent on coal projects, according to Boston University’s database on China’s global energy financing.the two leaders discussed “significant action” to impose sanctions on “human rights violators” in Xinjiang.

The European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States sanctioned several members of Xinjiang’s political and economic hierarchy this week in coordinated action over the rights allegations, prompting retaliation from Beijing in the form of sanctions on individuals from the EU and UK.Beijing, which insists the situation in Xinjiang is an “internal affair,” announced sanctions on Friday against nine British individuals and four entities, saying they had “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” over the treatment of the Uighurs.