China orders US consulate to close in Chengdu as tensions grow

The Chinese government ordered the US consulate in Chengdu to close in a tit-for-tat game after the US ordered China’s embassy to close in Houston last week.

Last week a US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said over the closure of the Chinese embassy, “We have directed the closure of PRC [People’s Republic of China] Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information.”

Ortagus added, that the US “will not tolerate the PRC’s violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC’s unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behaviour.”

In another statement, the US State Department accused China if engaging “in massive illegal spying and influence operations.”

The US State Department said that the consulate suspended all operations at 10am local time on Monday, they also expressed disappointment over the decision.

Removal vans were seen on Sunday with diplomatic cars leaving the area and late at a night a flatbed lorry left carrying a shipping container.

They said that the US will try and continue with their outreach in Southwestern China through other missions they have in the country.

The statement added that the consulate, “has stood at the centre of our relations with the people in Western China, including, Tibet, for 35-years.”

Escalations have been rising in recent months over trade, the Huawei scandal, national security issues, human rights and the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen President Donald Trump heavily criticised China and the World Health Organization.

The White House have constantly said that the pandemic was “preventable” and Mike Pompeo accused China’s Communist Party of exploiting coronavirus “to further their own interests.”

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who was in Downing Street for a summit meeting, last week, slammed the Chinese President Xi Jingping and called him “disgraceful” for “exploiting” the coronavirus pandemic for their own interests.

Speaking after the meeting Pompeo told journalists at Downing Street, Pompeo did not hold back on his words, and warned that Jingping’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pose a serious “communist threat.”

The US Secretary of State has urged other nations to push back against the CCP and said the Chinese leadership is a threat, and said democratic nations must understand the threat they pose, he warned on Tuesday afternoon.

Pompeo said speaking from No 10 Downing Street, “We began with the challenge presented by the Chinese communist party in the COVID-19 virus which orginated in Wuhan, China.

“On behalf of the American people I want to extend my condolences to the British people for your losses from this preventable pandemic.