China said on Wednesday it wanted to cooperate with President Joe Biden's new U.S. administration, while announcing sanctions against "lying and cheating" outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and 27 other top officials under Donald Trump.
The move was a sign of China's anger, especially at an accusation Pompeo made on his final full day in office that China had committed genocide against its Uyghur Muslims, an assessment that Biden's choice to succeed Pompeo, Antony Blinken, said he shared.
In a striking repudiation of its relationship with Washington under Trump, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced the sanctions in a statement that appeared on its website around the time that Biden was taking the presidential oath.