China Reacts, Shuts US Consulate In Chengdu

The Republic of China on Friday ordered the closure of the US Consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, following the closure of the China consulate in the United States of America.

This is coming after top American officials warned about the “tyranny” of China, and Chinese nationals being indicted in the United States on various charges.

The foreign ministry in a statement ordered the Chengdu consulate to be closed, it said, “legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States.”

“The current situation in China-US relations is not what China desires to see, and the US is responsible for all this.”

The ministry further stated that the closure was directly in response to the United States on Tuesday ordering the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down.

The Secretary of State in the United State, Mike Pompeo, had earlier stated that the Houston mission was a “hub of spying and intellectual property theft”.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio called the consulate the “central node of the Communist Party’s vast network of spies and influence operations in the United States”.

China while reacting to the allegations levelled against it by the United States described it as “malicious slander”.

The order on Houston came a day after the US Justice Department unveiled the indictment of two Chinese nationals for allegedly hacking hundreds of companies and attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

The Justice Department then announced Thursday indictments of four Chinese researchers it said lied about their ties to the People’s Liberation Army, with one escaping arrest by taking refuge in China’s San Francisco consulate.