On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry gave the US consulate in Chengdu, Szechuan, 72 hours to shut down in response to a similar notice about China’s consulate in…
KJ Noh, a scholar of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and correspondent for Flashpoints, Dissident Voice, CounterPunch and other outlets, told Radio Sputnik’s Loud and Clear Friday that while the US is attempting to ramp up hostilities with China, Beijing’s responses have been carefully measured, proving it’s not the threat Washington claims. “I think it’s a very measured, tit-for-tat response,” Noh told host John Kiriakou, especially in response to how extraordinary a move shutting down the Houston consulate was, which he said violated “if not the letter, at least the spirit” of the Vienna Convention. Noh pointed out the Szechuan consulate was picked despite online polls in China showing very strong support for the US’ Hong Kong consulate becoming the target of Beijing’s response. “But this is a much stronger message, they are going to bide their time before they do that. If they shut down Shanghai or Guangzhou consulates, that would hurt the US economically, but again they are holding that card in reserve. The early discussions which said they would shut down the Wuhan consulate, but that consulate is already more or less shut down, so that would be purely symbolic, and they chose not to do that.
