China orders US consulate closure in tit-for-tat move
CONSULATE WARS American facility in Chengdu told to shut in response to US move on Houston
BEIJING/ WASHINGTON: China on Friday ordered the US consulate in Chengdu in Sichuan province to shut down its operations within 72 hours.
The move comes in retaliation to Washington ordering the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston within the same time span.
A statement published on the website of China’s foreign ministry said, “On the morning of July 24, the ministry of foreign affairs of China informed the US embassy in China of its decision to withdraw its consent for the establishment and operation of the US consulate general in Chengdu.”
America’s Chengdu consulate is located close to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
The White House urged China on Friday not to engage in “tit-for-tat retaliation” by ordering the American consulate in Chengdu closed.
“Our action to direct the closure of PRC consulate general in Houston was taken to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” National Security
Council spokesman John Ullyot said.
“We urge the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to cease these malign actions rather than engage in tit-for-tat retaliation.”
Beijing, on the other hand, has blamed Washington instead for causing the latest escalation of tensions.
“On July 21, the US launched a unilateral provocation by abruptly demanding that China close its consulate general in Houston. The US move seriously breached international law, the basic norms of international relations, and the terms of the China-US consular convention. It gravely harmed China-US relations,” the statement said.
Speaking at a foreign ministry briefing, spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that some personnel from the US consulate in Chengdu had “…engaged in activities inconsistent with their identities.”
In another escalatory development, a Chinese researcher who took refuge from US authorities at China’s consulate in San Francisco is now in American custody and is expected to appear in court on Friday, a senior US justice department official said.
According to court filings in US district court in San Francisco, Juan Tang, who worked at University of California, Davis, falsely claimed on her visa application she didn’t serve in the Chinese military. She was charged with visa fraud on June 26.
A Singaporean pleaded guilty on Friday to using his political consultancy in the US as a front to collect information for Chinese intelligence, the US justice department said.
Jun Wei Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, entered his plea in federal court in Washington to one charge of operating illegally as a foreign agent.
The FBI has interviewed visa holders in over 25 US cities suspected of hiding Chinese military memberships, the justice department said, as part of a crackdown on the theft of US know-how.