MESOPOTAMIA NEWS FOREIGN AFFAIRS : China Closes U.S. Consulate as Tensions Escalate

24 July 2020 – FOREIGN AFFAIRS- Chinese officials demanded that the U.S. consulate in the city of Chengdu cease operations by Monday in retaliation for the United States’ swift shutdown (Straits Times) of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, over concerns about espionage and other crimes. The Chinese announcement follows a Thursday speech by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which he called for “free nations” to triumph over Chinese tyranny (Guardian).

Tensions are again mounting between the two countries, as Washington also imposed new sanctions (WaPo) on Chinese companies and arrested Chinese researchers for visa fraud. Beijing, meanwhile, has accused the United States of political persecution and slander. The ongoing tensions have raised concerns about further impacts on the global economy (Bloomberg) amid the pandemic, and put pressure on other countries to take a side (SCMP).

 

Analysis
“In diplomatic retaliations you have to retaliate, this is about in the middle. If China had picked Wuhan, an empty consulate, it would have looked weak,” Cheng Xiaohe, deputy director of Renmin University’s Center for China’s International Strategic Studies, tells the Financial Times. “But if China closed Hong Kong, Guangzhou or Shanghai, that’s too serious.”

“By leaving a power vacuum in the world’s darkest hour, the United States has bequeathed China ample room to overreach—and to demonstrate that it is unqualified for a position of sole global leadership,” CFR’s Mira Rapp-Hooper and Kurt M. Campbell write in Foreign Affairs.