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China Orders U.S. to Shut Chengdu Consulate, Retaliating for Houston China Orders U.S. to Shut Chengdu Consulate, Retaliating for Houston
(32 minutes later)
BEIJING — Retaliating for the Trump administration’s order to close China’s consulate in Houston, China announced on Friday that it had told the United States to shut its consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu. BEIJING — As the United States lashed out against the “new tyranny” of China, Beijing on Friday ordered the closure of the American consulate in Chengdu, a retaliatory move that threatens to drive the two powers into an even deeper divide.
The tit-for-tat consulate closures were yet another twist in deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, perhaps the gravest one yet. Previous moves by the two sides have included visa restrictions, new travel rules for diplomats and the expulsion of foreign correspondents. By shutting down diplomatic missions, however, the two countries seem to be moving inexorably toward a deeper divide. Beijing blamed the Trump administration for the deterioration in relations, calling its own action justified after Washington told China this week to shutter its consulate in Houston and accused its diplomats of acting illegally. A Chinese official, in turn, denounced American diplomats in Chengdu, a southwestern city, for interfering in China’s affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said the move was a “legitimate and necessary response to the unjustified act by the United States.” It said the United States was responsible for the deterioration in relations and urged it to “immediately retract” its directive to close the consulate in Houston. In the Chinese telling, Beijing is under assault, as the Trump administration goes after it with increasing intensity on trade, technology and human rights. All in a matter of weeks, the United States has sanctioned Chinese officials over the ruling Communist Party’s policies in Hong Kong and the western region of Xinjiang, cut off Chinese companies’ access to American technology and challenged Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea.
China’s announcement came hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech outlining the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive stance toward China on virtually every aspect of the relationship — from trade to technology. The party’s propaganda outlets struck a nationalistic note on Friday in commentaries about China’s move to close the United States Consulate in Chengdu, vowing that Beijing would hold firm in the face of mounting pressure from the United States.
“We must admit a hard truth that should guide us in the years and decades to come, that if we want to have a free 21st century, and not the Chinese century of which Xi Jinping dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done,” Mr. Pompeo said on Thursday. “We must not continue it and we must not return to it.” “The United States has recently stirred up troubles in relations with China to the point of hysteria,” said the official Xinhua News Agency, in an editorial.
He spoke in California at the library of President Richard M. Nixon, whose visit to China in 1972 set in motion a new era of relations that, he said, China exploited to the disadvantage of the United States. His reference to the closing of the consulate in Houston was met with a round of applause. “The unprovoked closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston by the United States not only aroused the indignation of the Chinese people,” the editorial read, “but also allowed the international community to see the true face of American bullying.”
Chinese officials have reacted angrily to the administration’s moves, accusing Mr. Pompeo and others of embracing a Cold War mentality. They have denied or downplayed many of the accusations, including that the consulate in Houston was a hub of illegal activity. To the Trump administration, China has been the aggressor. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday accused Beijing of exploiting the West’s willingness to engage with the Communist Party. He called on “freedom-loving nations of the world” to band together and “induce China to change.”
Beijing’s order to close the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, the westernmost of the five American consulates in mainland China, deprives the United States of its most valuable diplomatic outpost for gathering information on Xinjiang and Tibet, the two sometimes-restive regions in China’s far west. It was a speech set against a symbolic backdrop. Mr. Pompeo spoke in California at the library of President Richard M. Nixon, whose visit to China in 1972 set in motion a new era of relations that, he said, disadvantaged the United States.
Both regions have been the locations for wide-ranging security crackdowns that have drawn international criticism for abuses of human rights. Chinese officials insist that they have respected international norms. “If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the free world,” said Mr. Pompeo, whose reference to the closing of the consulate in Houston was met with applause.
In a tweet on Friday, Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, strongly criticized Mr. Pompeo’s remarks. The secretary of state is “launching a new crusade against China in a globalized world,” she wrote. “What he is doing is as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree.” “General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize inside and outside of China forever unless we allow it,” he added, referring to Xi Jinping, China’s leader.
Administration officials this week accused Chinese diplomats in Houston of aiding economic espionage and the attempted theft of scientific research in numerous cases across the United States. Intelligence operatives from all countries operate out of their embassies and consulates, but with its actions, the administration is accusing the Chinese of going too far, violating American law by lying about their identities in order to operate undercover. Chinese officials have reacted angrily to the administration, accusing Mr. Pompeo and others of embracing a Cold War mentality. In a tweet on Friday, Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, criticized Mr. Pompeo for “launching a new crusade against China in a globalized world.”
A summary of law-enforcement activities against the Chinese in the United States, provided by officials in Washington to The New York Times, depicted a web of covert activities by the consulate to recruit researchers and others to collect technology and research, including at several of the top medical centers in the greater Houston region. “What he is doing is as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree,” Ms. Hua wrote.
Increasingly, both sides are staking out intractable positions from which it would be hard to find common ground.
“Pompeo’s speech is the new Cold War declaration of the United States,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing. “And the world is divided into two: Start anew and carry out all aspects of competition and confrontation with China.”
The concern is that the damage wrought by these recent moves will become increasingly difficult to reverse. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared aware of this risk even as it announced the closure of the American consulate, suggesting that the United States could help to bring the relationship back on track if it immediately retracted its decision on the Houston consulate.
But the Trump administration has said the closure of the Houston consulate was necessary because it had become a hub of illegal spying and influence operations, allegations that Chinese officials have denied.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, accused American diplomats in Chengdu on Friday of engaging in inappropriate activities, without providing examples.
“They interfered in China’s internal affairs and harmed China’s national security interests,” he told reporters at a regular briefing.
Within hours of the announcement, the Chengdu consulate became an object of national fascination in China. A live video feed showing the closed front gate of the consulate had been viewed 24 million times by Friday evening on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging service.
Chinese diplomats had been seen burning what appeared to be documents in the courtyard of the Houston consulate after they were ordered to leave, raising speculation in China about whether American diplomats might do the same.
The immediate effect of the two consulates’ closures is expected to be minimal, especially since the visas they normally process have become moot at a time when travel has been severely limited by the coronavirus pandemic.
But the closure of the consulate in Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, the westernmost of the five American consulates in mainland China, deprives the United States in a city that is a hub for China’s commercial expansion across Central Asia. Chengdu is also its most valuable diplomatic outpost for gathering information on Xinjiang and Tibet, the two sometimes-restive regions in China’s far west.
Both regions have been the locations for wide-ranging security crackdowns that have drawn international criticism as abuses of human rights. Chinese officials have dismissed such concerns as unfair.
The consulate in Chengdu was also briefly at the center of Chinese political intrigue in 2012 when Wang Lijun, the police chief from the nearby metropolis of Chongqing, fled there after a falling-out with his boss, the city’s party leader, Bo Xilai. Mr. Bo was later accused of being at the center of a conspiracy to seize control of the Communist Party.
China had warned earlier this week that it would retaliate for the Houston consulate closure in kind. At the same time, the government appears to have little appetite for an escalation.
Global Times, a nationalistic Communist Party newspaper, acknowledged that Chinese leaders faced a dilemma in how to respond.
“Not to fight back will be regarded as weakness, which will lead to a series of consequences and seriously endanger China’s long-term national interests,” the paper said in a commentary. But, it noted, “taking countermeasures every time will force China and the United States to drift farther apart the more they fight, and accelerate their ‘decoupling.’”
The editorial said that Beijing ultimately could not afford to be passive: “China’s attitude is very simple, as long as it is a malicious provocation, we will fight back with no exception.”
Trump administration officials had accused Chinese diplomats in Houston of aiding economic espionage and the attempted theft of scientific research in numerous cases across the United States. Intelligence operatives from all countries operate out of their embassies and consulates, but with its actions, the administration is accusing the Chinese of going too far, violating American law by lying about their identities in order to operate undercover.
A summary of law-enforcement activities against the Chinese in the United States, provided by officials in Washington to The New York Times, depicted a web of covert efforts by the consulate to recruit researchers and others to collect technology and research, including at several of the top medical centers in the greater Houston region.
It also detailed a series of F.B.I. investigations across the country, disclosing that the bureau had conducted interrogations in 25 states of people thought to be members of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, who were sent to study or conduct research at U.S. universities without disclosing their affiliation.It also detailed a series of F.B.I. investigations across the country, disclosing that the bureau had conducted interrogations in 25 states of people thought to be members of China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army, who were sent to study or conduct research at U.S. universities without disclosing their affiliation.
The document said that four of them had been charged and three arrested. One, identified as Tang Juan, studied at the University of California, Davis, and fled to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to escape arrest, according to the document. That has created yet another diplomatic crisis to untangle. The Justice Department announced on Thursday that four of them had been charged and three arrested. One, identified as Tang Juan, studied at the University of California, Davis, and fled to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to escape arrest, according to the document. That has created yet another diplomatic crisis to untangle.
At the foreign ministry’s daily briefing on Thursday, Wang Wenbin, the senior ministry spokesman, denied that Chinese diplomats had engaged in inappropriate activities and called for the United States not to act against Chinese students or scholars. Keith Bradsher reported from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul, South Korea. Edward Wong contributed reporting from Washington and Cao Li from Hong Kong. Coral Yang contributed research from Shanghai.
China’s decision to close a consulate was expected. China had warned earlier in the week that it would retaliate in kind. At the same time, the government appears to have little appetite for an escalation.
Yet China’s selection of the Chengdu consulate for closure instead of the partly shuttered American Consulate in Wuhan may still rankle the Trump administration. The United States closed the Wuhan consulate and evacuated all personnel there after the Chinese government locked down the city on Jan. 23 in response to the widespread emergence of the novel coronavirus there.
There was no immediate comment from the State Department or the United States Embassy in Beijing.
Mr. Wang said on Thursday that the foreign ministry has been helping the United States to start sending personnel back to Wuhan last month for the resumption of some operations there. Houston and Wuhan are sister cities.
The immediate effect of the two consulates’ closing is expected to be minimal in the short term, especially since the visas they normally process have become moot at a time when travel has been severely limited by the coronavirus pandemic.
One difficulty for China in closing American consulates is that they are needed by many Chinese families. United States consulates in China issued 1.26 million visas in the past fiscal year.
Over the past couple decades, it has also been common for wealthy Communist Party families to fly to the United States to give birth to their children, who obtain American passports. The babies are then brought back to China to grow up, which creates a need to obtain new American passports for the children every five years.
The city of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, has also emerged as a hub for China’s expansion across the vast deserts and steppes of Central Asia, through the Belt and Road Initiative begun by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Freight trains from Chengdu have carried consumer electronics and other freight across Asia and Eastern Europe to markets in Western Europe for seven years.
The consulate in Chengdu was also briefly at the center of Chinese political intrigue in 2012 when Wang Lijun, the police chief from the nearby metropolis of Chongqing, fled there seeking asylum after a falling-out with his boss, the city’s party leader, Bo Xilai. Mr. Bo was later accused of being at the center of a conspiracy to seize control of the party.
Keith Bradsher reported from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul, South Korea.