China Orders Closure Of US Consulate In Retaliation For Closure Of Houston Consulate

In retaliation for the closure of its consulate in Houston, China ordered the closure Friday of the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a press release it did not want to see things continue to escalate in this manner, but the blame for this situation lies solely with the U.S.

“The responsibility lies entirely with the U.S. side,” the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. “We again urge the U.S. side to immediately revoke its relevant wrong decisions to create necessary conditions for the two countries’ relationship to return to normal.”

The Chengdu consulate is among the more important U.S. consulates due to its proximity to the autonomous region of Tibet in southwestern China. It is also the only U.S. Consulate in western China where several major U.S. companies operate as part of a development plan outlined by Chinese officials for the largely rural region.

“If China had closed the Wuhan consulate, the matter might have ended there because the issue in Wuhan was China preventing U.S. diplomats from returning to China after the COVID-19 outbreak,” Jeff Moon told CNN. Moon served as the consul general for the Chengdu consulate from 2003 to 2006.

Officials have not commented on the other U.S. consulates in eastern China or the states of the U.S. Embassy.

The closure is another example of the rising tensions between the U.S. and China in the last year due to the countries’ trade war, data privacy violations, and accusations of human rights violations in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been among the Trump administration’s most vocal critics of China, attacked the country again in speech Thursday.

“As President Trump has made very clear, we need a strategy that protects the American economy and indeed our way of life. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny,” Pompeo said while speaking at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. “The truth is that our policies -- and those of other free nations -- resurrected China's failing economy, only to see Beijing bite the international hands that were feeding it. We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only to see the Chinese Communist Party exploit our free and open society.”

Pompeo’s speech drew immediate criticism from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

“What he is doing is as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. “It's about time that all peace-loving people around the world stepped forward to prevent him from doing the world more harm.”