Consulate closures an inflection point in China-U.S. relations

CHENGDU, China — In the more than 40 years since China and the U.S. established formal diplomatic relations, accusations have been traded, tensions have risen and fallen and the two sides have come dangerously close to outright confrontation.

Yet the forced closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston and China’s order in response to shutter the U.S. Consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu mark a new low point in ties between the world’s largest economies that can’t easily be smoothed over.

Mistrust and rancor surrounding disputes over alleged technology theft, national security, human rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea are now the main drivers in a relationship that had long sought to compartmentalize such issues to prevent them from impeding trade ties and cooperation in managing issues such as North Korea’s nuclear program and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

Going forward, the prospects for reconciliation look dim, even if the U.S. elects a new administration in November.

Chinese authorities took control of the former U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Monday after it was ordered closed in retaliation for a U.S. order to vacate the Chinese Consulate in Houston.

A State Department statement expressed disappointment, saying the consulate “has stood at the center of our relations with the people in Western China, including Tibet, for 35 years.”

“We are disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s decision and will strive to continue our outreach to the people in this important region through our other posts in China,” it said.

China’s foreign ministry issued a brief notice saying “competent authorities” entered through the front entrance and took over the premises after U.S. diplomats closed it at 10 a.m. Prior to that, the flag was lowered and workmen began removing plaques and other signs of U.S. sovereignty on the compound’s exterior.

That conveyed a sense of permanent rupture not felt during previous crises, including the 1999 stoning of the U.S. Embassy in response to NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, along with the 2001 collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.

A day earlier, China’s foreign ministry issued a statement of protest over what it called intrusions into the Houston consulate that violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the ChinaU.S. Consular Convention.

“The Chinese side deplores and firmly opposes the U.S. move of forcibly entering China’s Consulate General in Houston and has lodged solemn representations. China will make legitimate and necessary reactions,” the statement said.

China maintains consulates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York in addition to its embassy in Washington.

The U.S. has four other consulates in China and an embassy in Beijing, keeping the sides in parity in terms of diplomatic missions.