U.S. slaps sanctions on four Chinese individuals, including Xinjiang Communist Party head

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday imposed human rights sanctions on four Chinese individuals, including the Xinjiang region's Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, as well as on the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, according to the U.S. Treasury Department's website.

The Treasury did not specify why the sanctions were imposed, though the United States is seeking to ratchet up pressure on China at a time of heightened tensions over that country's treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang and Beijing's new national security law for Hong Kong. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Tim Ahmann Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)