China said on Sunday it was taking countermeasures against two Canadian institutions and 20 people involved in Uyghur and Tibetan human rights issues.

The measures, which took effect on Saturday, include asset freezes and entry bans, and targets include Canada’s Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada-Tibetan Committee, China’s foreign ministry said on its website.

Human rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuse of Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.

China took control of Tibet in 1950, in what it describes as “peaceful liberation” from feudal serfdom. International human rights groups and exiles, however, routinely denounce what they call China’s repressive rule in Tibetan areas.

For the two institutions, China said it was freezing their “movable assets, immovable assets and other types of assets within the territory of China.” It freezes the assets in China of 15 people in the Uyghur institution and five in the Tibet Committee, barring them from entering China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

Canada recently announced sanctions on several Chinese officials, alleging “serious violations of human rights”.

“Canada is deeply concerned about human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet and against those who practice Falun Gong,” said Mélanie Joly, the foreign affairs minister, in a statement released earlier this month.

Calls to the Canadian embassy in Beijing were not answered. Reuters did not immediately receive a response from human rights groups or Global Affairs Canada.