China on Monday blacklisted 10 EU individuals and four entities in retaliation to Brussels’ package of sanctions against Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in the western region of Xinjiang.

The Chinese government sanctioned Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, and Michael Gahler, chair of the European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group, in addition to some members of the European Parliament affiliated with the parliaments of EU member countries such as Germany, Belgium, Lithuania and the Netherlands. German scholar Adrian Zenz, along with other think tanks, have also been put on the sanction list.

The EU ambassadors last Wednesday imposed sanctions on four Chinese individuals and one entity over human rights violations targeting the minority Uyghur Muslim population. The violations were labeled as “genocide” by the US, Canada and the Netherlands.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, the members of the European Parliament were among those who severely harm China’s sovereignty and interests and maliciously spread lies and disinformation. The Chinese foreign ministry said “the individuals concerned and their families are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China.”

Entities including the Political and Security Committee of the Council of the European Union; the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament; the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation in Denmark were also sanctioned by the Chinese government.