China Orders US to Close Consulate in Chengdu

State Dept won't say if the US will actually close the site

In retaliation for the US order to close the Chinese Consulate in Houston, China has ordered the US to close the American Consulate in Chengdu. The historical capital of Shu Han, Chengdu is also the capital of the Sichuan Province, and a population of over 16 million people.

Tit-for-tat consular closings are common retaliation, and Chinese officials were saying this was virtually obligatory to make a move in response to Houston.The State Department is being rather noncommittal on if they’ll actually close the site.

Personnel may have to leave, but the State Department says they “still have a job to do” in Chengdu, and seems to intend to keep some operations ongoing in the closed consulate either way. How this will comply with a closure order is unclear, but they noted China never agreed to close Houston either.

Even those losing a consulate was the predictable outcome of the Houston order, US officials don’t want to admit to any blowback, and instead want to be vague on how they intend to react to the problem that they were clearly unprepared for.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.