China order’s to shut US consulate in Chengdu

Bejing: In retaliation to US, China ordered the closure of US consulate in the southwest city of Chengdu after US shut the Huston consulate office.

The move was a "legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by the United States", the 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," the statement added.

The tension between the two countries has already been there on economic front but the situation flamed when US decided to shut the Huston consulate on Tuesday.

This move came after the US Justice Department unveiled the charge against two Chinese nationals for hacking hundreds of companies in an attempt to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

In a statement, China urged US to backtrack and "create the necessary conditions for bilateral relations to return to normal".

The Chengdu consulate was established in 1985 and has around 200 staff with approximately 150 locally hired Chinese employees, according to its website.

This consulate is in controversy for the last few years.

In 2013, China demanded a probe on US after a top secrete map leaked by fugitive intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio earlier called China's Houston consulate the "central node of the Communist Party's vast network of spies and influence operations in the United States".

The comments drew anger from Beijing, with foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin labelling Washington's allegations as "malicious slander".

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