Beijing has ordered one of the U.S. consulates in China to shut down, in an apparent retaliation against Washington over its decision to close down the Chinese consulate in Houston.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan Province. In a statement issued on its website on Friday, the Ministry said it informed the U.S. Embassy about its decision on Friday morning.
Currently, the United States has six diplomatic outposts in China, an embassy in the capital Beijing, and five consulates. The five are located in the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Wuhan.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its decision to close the U.S. consulate in Chengdu was a “legitimate and necessary response,” and accused Washington of launching “a unilateral provocation” by ordering the Chinese consulate in Houston to close down.
It demanded that the United States to “immediately retract its wrong decision and create necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track.”