US politicians introduced legislation on Wednesday urging the White House to consider sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the ongoing crackdown against Muslim minorities, and halt the sale of US technology potentially used by China for surveillance.

A draft bill seen by The Telegraph calls specifically for sanctions against Chen Quanguo, a senior official and Communist Party secretary for Xinjiang, the northwestern province home to the majority of Uighur Muslims.

The sanctions would be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act – which would freeze violators’ US assets, prohibit travel to the US, and ban Americans from doing business with them – as well as a federal religious freedom law.

Mr Chen, who previously instituted similar policies in Tibet, is thought to be the architect of the recent security crackdown.

The bill also asks Donald Trump, the US president, to consider a ban on technology exports to China that could be used in the surveillance and mass detention of ethnic Uighurs.

Surveillance technologies are spreading across China. Beijing is planning to roll out facial recognition technology on its subway system, and cities have started using software that can track people by their gait alone, and identify people even when they have their faces covered.