BEIJING, August 5. /TASS/. The Chinese government has imposed restrictive countermeasures on six US entities in retaliation for Washington's sanctions over alleged "forced labor," China's Ministry of Commerce announced.

According to the ministry's website, the sanctions target Applied DNA Sciences, Stratum Reservoir, Altana Technologies, the Responsible Business Alliance, Verite Group, and the Human Rights in China organization. The decision was approved by China's national coordination mechanism for countering foreign sanctions.

"The United States has recently imposed sanctions on Chinese enterprises under the pretext of so-called forced labor, which constitutes a gross violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations. It is also a serious infringement on our country's sovereignty, security, and development interests," the statement said.

The ministry stressed that these US entities "aided and abetted the United States' illegal sanctions against Xinjiang," yielding an "extremely negative impact." Beijing has banned all transactions and cooperation with the blacklisted entities.

Last week, the US announced an import ban on products from 43 additional Chinese firms across the mining, agriculture, transport, metallurgy, and seafood processing sectors, citing human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This brought the total number of blacklisted Chinese entities to 187, despite Beijing's repeated denials of Washington's allegations of human rights abuses and genocide.