Tit-for-tat retaliation hit U.S.-Chinese relations with China responding to the U.S. closing it consulate in Houston July 25, Texas, claiming that it was a hotbed of Chinese spies. While China called the accusations “malicious lies,” it didn’t stop the State Department from ordering Houston’s Chinese consulate shut down. China retaliated today, closing the U.S. consulate in Chengdu. Tensions escalated between the U.S. and China, with the U.S. slamming China for its aggressive policy in the South China sea, technology piracy and human right abuses in Hong Kong. Seizing control of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, China served notice that there would be consequences for U.S. closing the Chinese consulate in Houston. Closing the Western Chinese Chengdu consulate leaves the U.S. with less clout in Tibet, where a raging border dispute has gone on for decades.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 56, has pushed China to the breaking point, blasting Beijing for grotesque theft of U.S. intellectual property. When 74-year-old President Donald Trump signed the Phase 1 Trade Deal Jan. 15, markets took a welcomed breather from escalating rhetoric between the two countries. “We are disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s decision and will strike to continue our outreach to people in this important region through are other posts in China,” said a U.S. State Department statement. Chinese authorities hoped the matter could be resolved quickly but doubted much could be done in the near term. China’s foreign ministry wasn’t happy when State Department officials accused Houston’s consulate of spying on the United States. China’s foreign ministry claimed the U.S. illegally closed its consulation, rejecting U.S. excuses.
China’s Foreign Ministry demands that the U.S. reopen its Houston consulate immediately and apologize for accusing its staff of spying on U.S. business assets. “The Chinese side deplores and firmly opposes the U.S. move of forcibly entering China Consulate General in Houston and has lodged solemn representations. China will make Legitimate and necessary reactions,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. With four other consulates in China, including the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the Chinese move to close the Chengdu consulate puts the ball in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s court. Pompeo tends to pull no punches when it comes to China, mirroring White House China hawk economist Peter Navarro. Navarro’s led the charge to force China into making economic concessions to the U.S. Getting into another brouhaha with China only makes economic ties worse.
Under Navarro’s direction, Trump has taken a hard line on China, before and after the deadly coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 global pandemic. Trump doesn’t hesitate to call Covid-19 the “China virus,” antagonizing U.S.-Chinese relations. While China certainly covered-up the deadly virus for months, the World Health Organization [WHO] doesn’t back U.S. theories that the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology [WIV], Level 4 security microbiology lab experimenting with deadly coronaviruses. China insists—and WHO backs them up—that the virus occurred naturally with coronavirus-infected animals jumping to human hosts. U.S. officials insist that lax biosecurity at WIV caused the human-to-human transmission. Closing the Chengdu U..S. consulate shows that China can get tough when it wants. Closing China’s Houston Chinese consulate started the retaliation.
Whatever happened in the Houston consulate, China doesn’t need to use its consulate personnel to hack into U.S. medical facilities, like the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Spying allegations don’t play well in Beijing, where the Communist Party has grown tired of U.S. spying allegations. China called the State Department’s spying charges “malicious slander,” prompting the retaliation in Chengdu, closing the U.S. consulate. Before the bad blood gets out of hand, Pompeo should try to resolve the issue with 66-year-old Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, before it affects current trade relations already tense because of Trump’s on-again, off-again trade sanctions, claiming China takes advantage of U.S. businesses. Closing consulates sends a bad diplomatic message to both countries, looking to get over the current coronavirus global pandemic causing global recession.
Trump and Pompeo need to fix the Houston debacle at the earliest possible time and restore favorable diplomatic ties with China. Whatever the U.S. beef with Hong Kong or the South China Sea, those issues won’t resolve anytime soon, especially by closing consulates, cutting off communication. No country’s relations with others are perfect, especially the U.S. relationship with China. Trump has highlighted many complaints but it remains to be seen whether he’s actually helped U.S. businesses with his American First foreign policy. Pompeo also tends to imitate Peter Navarro too much for the nation’s chief diplomat. In Navarro’s role he can get away with the harsh criticism, not coming from the U.S. State Department. Pompeo should speak immediately with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to reopen both consulates before U.S.-Chinese relations continue to unravel.
