China is banning an American evangelical leader from the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao in the latest example of tit-for-tat sanctions after the United States slapped similar restrictions on a Chinese official involved in suppressing Falun Gong.

Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, would not be allowed into China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday. The travel restrictions imposed on Moore would apply to his family members as well.

The Chinese government urged Washington to correct its mistakes, revoke its so-called sanctions and stop using religious issues as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs, Zhao added.

Moore was a commissioner of the U.S. government body between 2018 and 2020. While in office, he designated Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai as a religious prisoner of conscience.

“Communist China must immediately release Jimmy Lai along with Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and others who it has detained in Hong Kong for their advocacy of democracy, human rights, and religious freedom,” he said in a USCIRF statement in December 2020.

On May 12 this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions on Yu Hui, a former office director of the Central Leading Group on Preventing and Dealing with Heretical Religions in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

“He is designated for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs,” Blinken said. “Yu Hui and his immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States.

“We will continue to consider all appropriate tools to promote accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in China and elsewhere.”

Falun Gong is a spiritual group banned in China.

U.S. sanctions against Chinese personnel were increasingly deployed by the administration of Donald Trump amid fracturing bilateral relations and have continued under U.S. President Joe Biden. In August 2020, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam was among those penalized for her role in what the U.S. said was the undermining of the city’s autonomy.

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