China shuts US consulate as tensions rise

Beijing orders closure of Chengdu office after Chinese ‘spy base’ in Houston was shut down

By Sophia Yan China Correspondent

and Nick Allen in Washington CHINA yesterday ordered the closure of the US consulate in the city of Chengdu as tensions soared between the world’s largest economies. Beijing said the move was a “necessary” retaliation for Washington’s earlier decision to shut China’s consulate in Houston over allegations it was a spy base.

A US justice department official said the Houston consulate was part of a nationwide Chinese espionage network in two dozen US cities, and was one of the “worst offenders”.

The official also linked activities at the Houston consulate to China’s pursuit of research into a vaccine for the coronavirus. “The medical connections here aren’t lost on me, and the medical connection in Houston is also pretty specific,” the official said.

He said the Houston consulate was “a microcosm of a broader network of individuals in more than 25 cities and that network is supported through the consulates here”.

Tensions between the two nations rose further after Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, called on Western nations to respond aggressively to the “new tyranny”of China. In a speech echoing Cold War rhetoric, Mr Pompeo said that US efforts at dialogue with China, which began under president Richard Nixon in 1972, had created a “Frankenstein” monster by bringing the Chinese Communist Party into contact with the world.

The US and its allies must ensure “a free 21st century and not the Chinese century of which President Xi dreams”, he said. Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, responded on Twitter that the “new crusade against China in a globalised world … is as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree”.

Relations have hit a new low following clashes over trade, technology, the coronavirus, human rights concerns, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and its recent imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong.

On Thursday, US prosecutors charged four individuals with visa fraud for lying about their status as members of the Chinese military while in the US. One of them was arrested last week after taking refuge in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.

Beijing yesterday suggested the door was still open for reconciliation, saying “the current situation in China-us relations is not what China desires to see”.

Daniel Russel, leading diplomat for east Asia under Barack Obama, accused Mr Pompeo of an “extended ideological rant” and warned that it would backfire.