Author: Yan Zhensheng
Source: Zhongshi Electronics News
The recent increasing contradictions in the United States and China have increased. The latest development is that Washington is forced to close the Chinese Consulate General in Houston on the grounds that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in spy work in Houston and stole American commercial secrets. Of course, Beijing does not.There may be no specific response, but is it to close a consulate in the United States in mainland China?If you decide to do this, which one should you choose?It needs high political wisdom, because this must be a cautious response, and at the same time, it must be credible and not regarded as a children's drama.
If you choose Hong Kong, there are some incorrect names and uncomfortable words. After all, this is a special administrative district under one country, two systems. At the same time, it has sufficient controversy during this time.Among the five consulates in the United States in the mainland, the Shanghai Consulate General in New York, Shanghai, will definitely be excluded. Therefore, only the four choices in Shenyang, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu are left.Wuhan and Chengdu are the two closer consulates in the inland. In the end, Beijing also asked the United States to close the Consulate General in Chengdu on the grounds that local US diplomats were engaged in the national interests of China.
The United States forced the Consulate General of Houston in mainland China. In fact, it is also questionable, because similar disputes also allowed Washington to ask Beijing to close the Consulate General of San Francisco. After all, the Bay Area is a high -tech town.There will be fewer, and researchers with the background of the People's Liberation Army hidden their status and entered the United States, and they were hid in the Consulate General of San Francisco after being discovered.Therefore, if the foreign diplomacy of the two countries continues to rise, Washington may close the consulate of mainland China, and the US Consulate General in Wuhan may become the target of revenge.
In addition to the above New York, Houston and San Francisco, two other consulates in mainland China in the United States are in Chicago and Los Angeles, respectively, with a total of only five.There is a considerable gap between this number and Taiwan's two -digit office in the United States.Although Taimei has no diplomatic relations, we have office in these five cities. In addition, we also have six places in Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Seattle and Honolulu.If it is restored to the office in Guam, a total of 12 will be returned.Is this because our economic and trade relations with the United States are more closely, or our cultural exchanges are more frequent, or the number of our diasporas exceeds the other side?Although there are many fit in value (freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law) between Taiwan and the United States, and the combination of the military interests of mainland China together, these are not enough to explain why the United States and China only have their own each.Five Consulate General.
In the past, when I talked to the assistant to the United States Congress, think tanks and academic circles, I asked this question and asked them to explain the confusion and finally got a reasonable explanation because, except for the five consulates in the United States existing in mainland China.Another one who wants to add is the Lhasa in Tibet.Beijing has long suspected that the United States supports Tibetan independence. If the consul in this area will be established in this area, it will definitely engage in the internal affairs of the CCP's unbearable interference in the CCP in intelligence collection, contact disagreements, and spreading Tibetan independence ideas, so they refuse.The reaction of Washington is that if I cannot add the Lhasa Consulate General, then Beijing will not add a new consulate in the United States.
The United States' intention to set up a consulate in Lhasa has never been dispelled by the Chinese rejection.The U.S. Congress has built the budget of the Consulate General in Lhasa and stated that the principle of mutual benefit will allow mainland China to choose a canther city in the United States in the United States.In September last year, the House of Representatives launched a bill, which clearly stated that the United States refused to set up a consulate in mainland China in the United States, unless she asked the United States to set up a hall in Lhasa. The case was passed at the end of January this year.
Obviously, due to the persistence of the United States, it is almost impossible to set up the two consulates of the two major power in the future.Not only that, when the two countries close each other's consul in each other, there may be the next one, which is worth observing.In 2017, Moscow asked Washington to cut US diplomats in Russia from 755 to 455. The Trump administration asked Russia to close the Consulate General in San Francisco within two days.In March 2018, Russia used biochemical weapons in the UK. After the Double Spy and his daughter died in Russia, the Trump administration was in addition to expelled 60 Russian diplomats and closed the Russian Consulate General in Seattle.Russia also requires 60 US diplomats to leave and close the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg.At present, Russia has the only two consulates in New York and Houston in the United States. The United States has two consulates in Russia that only Yakaterinburg, which is close to Kazakhstan in Russia, and Vladivostok in the Far East.
Although many observers believe that US -China relations have come to the lowest point in the 41st years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, from the perspective of US -Russian diplomacy, the two sides still have room for closing the consulate with each other. At the same timeIt's worse, not the worst.However, due to the limited number of consulates in the two countries, they should not be overwhelmed.
