China has beefed-up security outside the US consulate in Chengdu.Security forces are deployed surrounding the consulate as American staff prepared to leave.China ordered the consulate to close,in a retaliatory move after US ordered China to shut its consulate in Houston.
The tit-for tat diplomatic war fare is seen by experts as a new low in China-US relations since both countries normalized diplomatic relations in the 70s. China’s foreign affairs ministry on Saturday accused the US of violating international and bilateral agreements.
The sharp accusation was after the US made a forced entry to the Chinese embassy in Houston.A group of men who appeared to be US officials were seen forcing open a back door to the Houston facility after the closure order took effect on Friday.China’s foreign affairs ministry promised to respond to the incident, but did not elaborate on how.The security build-up around the US embassy in Chengdu could well be a retaliatory measure for US action in Houston.
“As for the US side’s forcible entry into the premises of the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, China expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition,” the ministry said in a statement. “China will make a proper and necessary response to this.”The US consulate emblem inside the compound was taken down and staff could be seen moving about. Three removal vans were later seen in the compound.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for his part, has said the consulate in Houston had been “a hub of spying and intellectual property theft”, by the Chinese.
US and China relations started souring soon after Trump came to power in US.Tensions started with a trade tariff disagreement and peaked when US accused China is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic.US began with sanctioning of Chinese communist leaders over the treatment of minority Muslim Uighurs. China’s imposition of a new security law in Hong Kong, and the continuing dispute over the South China Sea are also major points for US-China tensions.
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