In retaliation for the United States closing the Chinese consulate in Houston, TX, China has just ordered the closure of the American consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.
Financial markets weakened in early trading on the news as traders fear a new cold war between the superpowers.
“The current situation between China and the U.S. is something the Chinese side does not want to see,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in an online Chinese-language statement.
“The responsibility lies entirely with the U.S. side,” the statement added. “We again urge the U.S. side to immediately revoke its relevant wrong decisions, to create necessary conditions for the two countries’ relationship to return to normal.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday in a significant speech at the Nixon Presidential Library, “We must admit a hard truth that should guide us in the years and decades to come, that if we want to have a free 21st century, and not the Chinese century of which Xi Jinping dreams, the old paradigm of blind engagement with China simply won’t get it done...We must not continue it and we must not return to it."
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Imperial statuary in front of the Chendu Consulate was an insult anyway... Teddy Roosevelt mounted cavalry horses would be equivalent.
We let them have their statuary in the U.S.... what's up China? Can't handle the slightest equality?