• In a retaliatory move, China has ordered the United States consulate in the city of Chengdu to shut down.
• On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department ordered China’s consulate in Houston to close by Friday over concerns that it was engaging in intellectual property theft. 
• Cai Wei, the Chinese Consul General in Houston, told POLITICO that his mission will refuse the U.S. order, though that decision is most likely up to Beijing. 
• Both moves represent a growing divide between the two nations that encompasses a trade war, disputes over Hong Kong’s reversion of democratic freedoms, and the persecution of Chinese Muslims, among other actions.

China Order U.S. Consulate to Shut Down 

China has ordered the United States to close its consulate office in the city of Chengdu, a retaliatory move spurred by the Trump administration’s previous order to close a Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.

On Tuesday, employees at China’s Houston-based consulate were spotted burning documents. Hours later, the U.S. State Department officially announced that it had ordered the consulate to close its doors by Friday at 4 p.m. CDT.

Almost immediately after, China vowed to retaliate against the U.S. for the closure, and many media outlets speculated that it would likely close the U.S. consulate in Wuhan—a consulate that drew the ire of China after the U.S. evacuated its employees in January at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, on Friday, it chose Chengdu, and like the consulate in Houston, Chengdu was given three days to shut down.

The Chengdu American Center, along with three other U.S. consulates in China and the embassy in Beijing, has remained open with skeleton crews. Reportedly, the Chengdu mission is staffed by about 15 U.S. diplomats and boasts political, economic, and agricultural departments. It also issues visas.

When China announced the Chengdu consulate’s closure, the office was met with a flurry of police outside its building. In fact, the situation drew so much curiosity that 13 million people watched state broadcaster CCTV’s live stream from outside the consulate. 

In a statement, China’s Foreign Ministry called the move “legitimate and necessary,” blaming the Trump administration for widening the scope of the two countries’ dispute to include diplomatic offices. 

“The current situation between China and the United States is something China does not want to see, and the responsibility rests entirely with the United States,” the statement reads. “We once again urge the U.S. to immediately revoke the erroneous decision to create necessary conditions for the return of bilateral relations to normal.”

As to why Chengdu was chosen over the seemingly likely candidate of Wuhan, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday that U.S. staff in Chengdu had “interfered in China’s internal affairs and harmed China’s national security interests.” 

Wang’s comments likely refer to U.S. interest in the Tibet Autonomous Region, a region covered by the Chengdu consulate’s area of responsibility. It’s also a region populated by non-ethnic Chinese minorities that are especially vulnerable to Beijing’s rule.

Notably, Beijing has placed tight restrictions on Tibet and currently prohibits access to American diplomats, journalists, and tourists. 

Is China Refusing to Close the Houston Consulate?

In an interview with POLITICO, Cai Wei, the Chinese Consul General in Houston, said that his mission will refuse to close by the Friday deadline. 

“Today, we are still operating normally, so we will see what will happen tomorrow,” he said to the outlet.

Beijing has asked the Trump administration to rescind its order to close the Houston consulate, though that outcome remains unlikely. Still, the Chinese government alleges that the move violates international law. In fact, both sides have now accused the other of acting against the Vienna convention, which governs diplomatic relations between states.

Even though Cai is the head of Houston’s consulate, he is likely unable to make the call on whether or not his mission will remain open and disobey U.S. orders. According to experts, that authority falls to Beijing. 

“I would be very surprised if the consulate itself can decide without listening to Beijing,” Ho-Fung Hung, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told POLITICO. “They must be waiting for orders from Beijing with respect to what to do, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Beijing and the U.S. have been [talking] through the backchannels, discussing the situation.”

“Beijing might give instruction to the consulate at the last minute on what to do,” he added. 

Chinese Nationals Accused of U.S. Intellectual Property Theft

The same day the State Department ordered China’s Houston consulate to close, the Justice Department charged two former Chinese students with attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research in Texas. 

In fact, the Justice Department even alleges that those nationals were instructed to steal U.S. intellectual property by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the counterintelligence agency of the People’s Republic of China.

Following the announcement of the charges, China reissued a travel advisory for Chinese students in the U.S., warning them that they could face arbitrary interrogations, the confiscation of personal belongings, and potential detentions.

On Friday, the U.S. released a nearly identical message for Americans in China, warning that Americans are at a “heightened risk of arbitrary detention.”

“U.S. citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention for reasons related to ‘state security,’” the message said.

Additionally, the Justice Department has charged four other Chinese researchers with visa fraud for concealing government ties. Those charges, filed Thursday, have already resulted in the arrests of three of the researchers. The other is believed to be taking refuge at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, California.

The Justice Department has accused these researchers of being part of a larger plot by the Chinese government to steal American research.

U.S.-China Deteriorating Relationship 

Both moves come amid a deepening divide between the two powerhouses, one that encompasses a trade war, sanctions on lawmakers and journalists, the deterioration of freedoms in Hong Kong, forced labor camps and abuse against Chinese Muslims, and even TikTok of all things. 

In fact, analysts claim the relationship between the U.S. and China—the world’s two largest economies—is the worst it has been since before 1979, the year the U.S. formally recognized the People’s Republic of China. 

“The old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday at California’s Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “We must not continue it. We must not return to it. Today, China is increasingly authoritarian at home, and more aggressive in its hostility to freedom everywhere else. . . . If the free world doesn’t change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”

In that same speech, Pompeo accused the consulate of being “hub of spying and [intellectual property] theft.” 

Foreign Minister Wang responded on Friday, saying that Pompeo was “filled with ideological bias and a Cold War mentality.”

Also on Friday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tx.) said that the State Department’s decision to close the Houston consulate because of concerns over intellectual theft is a reminder that the Chinese are “not good actors.”

“What we know is that the Chinese have used consulates like this one, and this one might have been their primary hub, to engage in intellectual property [theft], hacking, influence operations, all of the above,” Crenshaw told Fox News.

“…the burning of documents is what occurs after the fact. Once you decide to close an embassy or a consulate like that, they’re going to burn all the evidence and that’s exactly what they did,” he added. 

Cai, however, has rejected such claims, telling POLITICO, “We have never done this. What we have done is very legal and follows the law and normal practice.”

See what others are saying: (POLITICO) (Associated Press) (BBC)