China has ordered the closure of the United States consulate in Chengdu, few days after the US forced the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.
Relations between the US and China is at an all time low as both nations squabble over the COVID-19 pandemic, trade, treatment of muslims and racial minorities in Xianjing, technology, security law in Hong Kong and US ties with Taiwan.
A statement from Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday July 24, said US diplomats in China have been notified on Friday morning that Beijing is revoking the license for the Chengdu consulate in China’s southwest, ordering the “stop of all business and activities.”
The statement added that the US had “unilaterally provoked the incident” by ordering the closure of the Houston office, an action Beijing said “seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations.”
The foreign ministry said;
The current situation between China and the United States is something China does not want to see, and the responsibility rests entirely with the United States.
We once again urge the US to immediately revoke the erroneous decision to create necessary conditions for the return of bilateral relations to normal.
On Twitter, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said;
The order is a legitimate and necessary response to the unilateral provocative move by the US to demand the closure of China’s Consulate General in Houston.
Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwest Sichuan province, is an important diplomatic outpost for the US, as it covers a large portion of China.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Houston mission was a “hub of spying and intellectual property theft”.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio called the consulate the “central node of the Communist Party’s vast network of spies and influence operations in the United States”.
China has however described the allegations as “malicious slander”.
The closure order on Chinese consulate in Houston came a day after the US Justice Department unveiled the indictment of two Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking hundreds of companies and attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research.
The Justice Department then announced on Thursday the indictments of four Chinese researchers it said lied about their ties to the People’s Liberation Army of China, with one escaping arrest by taking refuge in China’s San Francisco consulate.