China Responds To Closing The US Consulate Office In Chengdu After The Closing Of The Chinese Consulate In Houston

US Consulate in Chengdu (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - China closed the United States (US) Consulate Office in Chengdu after Uncle Sam's country closed the Chinese Consulate Office in Houston. This certainly makes the tension between the two countries getting hotter.

The US flag has stopped flying at the US Consulate in Chengdu since this morning, according to CNN reports. The order, which has been issued since last Friday, has also secured the people around the office.

On Saturday 25 July, the US coat of arms was taken down. The next day, the plaque outside the building was removed and the goods were already trucked. Not much different from when the US government closed the Chinese consulate in Houston, the Chinese government also gave 72 hours to the related parties to close their offices.

Over the weekend, hundreds of people had gathered outside the US consulate in the city of 16.5 million people. They took pictures and waved the Chinese flag.

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province, southwest China. The US Consulate in Chengdu is an important diplomatic post for the US because it covers the controversial Tibet Autonomous region.

A video posted on the Twitter account of the US Mission in China shows pictures of the US consulate in Chengdu which was opened by the then US Vice President, George Bush, in 1985. Various diplomatic duties were carried out by the consulate in Chengdu, one of which was the mission to Tibet.

今天 ， 我们 告别 美国 驻 成都 总 领事馆。 我们 会 永远 想念 你们。 pic.twitter.com/sV2fe9KVPJ

- 美国 驻华 使 领馆 US MissionCN (@USA_China_Talk) July 27, 2020

"Today, we say goodbye to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. We will miss you forever," wrote the account @USA_China_Talk.

The policy was put in place after the US ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston. According to the US government claim, the closure of the Chinese consulate must be done because the Bamboo Curtain country is involved in espionage efforts in the US.

US-China tensions

Tensions between the US and China have been brewing since the ongoing trade war. The situation got worse when the US often accused China of being responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The US has also pitched accusations of Chinese human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

Then in the last two weeks, relations between the two largest economies have worsened. The two countries mutually closed consulate offices. Following the closure of the Chinese consulate, there were reports that the Singaporean national pleaded guilty to spying for China in the US.

Speaking at the Nixon Library in California, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again threw words of criticism against China. He said that China implemented policies that had failed for decades.

"As President Trump has explained, we need a strategy to protect the US economy as well as our way of life. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny," Pompeo said.

"The truth is that our policy - the policies of other free countries - revive China's failed economy, only to see China bite the hand of the international feeding it. We open our hands to Chinese citizens to see the Chinese Communist Party exploiting our free society. and open, "he concluded.