CHENGDU: China on Friday ordered the US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu to close in retaliation for one of its missions in the United States being shuttered, capping a furious week of Cold War-style diplomacy.

Ordering the Chengdu consulate to cease operations was a “legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States”, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The current situation in China-US relations is not what China desires to see, and the US is responsible for all this,” it said without saying when the consulate would have to shut down.

The ministry emphasised the closure was directly in response to the US ordering the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down by Friday.

Some consulate staff “were engaged in activities outside of their capacity, interfered in China’s internal affairs, and endangered China’s security and interests,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week China’s 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 described the allegations 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.

Some two dozen policemen were stationed in front of the Chengdu consulate — which was surrounded by a waist-high barricade — late on Friday, according to a journalist, with officers asking individuals taking photos to move along.

Earlier, firecrackers were set off in front of the compound, according to images on state broadcaster CCTV, though one of its reporters added there was a wedding nearby and police at the scene were handling the matter.

The two nations have increasingly tussled over a plethora of issues, including China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its efforts to quash a “democracy movement” in Hong Kong.

In a video call with his German counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China still hoped to have mutually respectful cooperation with the US but stood ready to firmly safeguard its national sovereignty and dignity. “China will not follow the US’s dance, but will also never tolerate the US’s reckless behaviour,” he said.

The US administration has ratcheted up the rhetoric and taken increasingly strong actions in recent weeks, which many observers have said is part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to win votes in the November elections.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2020