Consulate Closures an Inflection Point in China-US Ties

A man works to remove the US Consulate plaque at the US Consulate General in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, July 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A man works to remove the US Consulate plaque at the US Consulate General in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, July 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Consulate Closures an Inflection Point in China-US Ties

A man works to remove the US Consulate plaque at the US Consulate General in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, July 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
A man works to remove the US Consulate plaque at the US Consulate General in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, July 26, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

In the more than 40 years since China and the US established formal diplomatic relations, accusations have been traded, tensions have risen and fallen and the two sides have come dangerously close to outright confrontation.

Yet the forced closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston and China’s order in response to shutter the US Consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu mark a new low point in ties between the world’s largest economies that can’t easily be smoothed over.

Mistrust and rancor surrounding disputes over alleged technology theft, national security, human rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea are now the main drivers in a relationship that had long sought to compartmentalize such issues to prevent them from impeding trade ties and cooperation in managing issues such as North Korea's nuclear program and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

Going forward, the prospects for reconciliation look dim, even if the US elects a new administration in November.

Chinese authorities took control of the former US Consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Monday after it was ordered closed in retaliation for a US order to vacate the Chinese Consulate in Houston.

A State Department statement expressed disappointment, saying the consulate “has stood at the center of our relations with the people in Western China, including Tibet, for 35 years.”

“We are disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party’s decision and will strive to continue our outreach to the people in this important region through our other posts in China,” it said.

China’s foreign ministry issued a brief notice saying “competent authorities” entered through the front entrance and took over the premises after US diplomats closed it at 10 a.m. Prior to that, the flag was lowered and workmen began removing plaques and other signs of US sovereignty on the compound's exterior.

That conveyed a sense of permanent rupture not felt during previous crises, including the 1999 stoning of the US Embassy in response to NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia, along with the 2001 collision between a US surveillance plane and Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.

A day earlier, China's foreign ministry issued a statement of protest over what it called intrusions into the Houston consulate that violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the China-US Consular Convention.

“The Chinese side deplores and firmly opposes the US move of forcibly entering China’s Consulate General in Houston and has lodged solemn representations. China will make legitimate and necessary reactions," the statement said.

China maintains consulates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York in addition to its embassy in Washington.

The US has four other consulates in China and an embassy in Beijing, keeping the sides in parity in terms of diplomatic missions.

The Chengdu consulate briefly came to prominence when the police chief of the nearby city of Chongqing fled there in 2012, precipitating the downfall of Chongqing's politically ambitious leader Bo Xilai in China's biggest political scandal in decades. It also played host to former Vice President Joe Biden during a visit when the current prospective Democratic Party presidential candidate was accompanied by China's now-leader Xi Jinping.

Police closed off a two- to three-block area around the consulate on Monday morning, cutting off virtually any view of the property including the flag. A few vehicles were allowed through after police checks, and others could be seen moving in the distance.

Officers kept a close watch, even after re-opening the area in the afternoon, determined to prevent any sign of unrest.

They took away a man wearing an anti-USA T-shirt after he held up and waved a short statement written in red on white paper. Later, an officer removed a bouquet of flowers that a woman had left at curbside, across from the entrance to the closed consulate.

Workers covered up the consulate signs on the wall outside shortly after the property was vacated. They included a bronze plaque near the entrance that a worker had tried to pry off the previous night, but without success.

Moving activity on Sunday continued well beyond midnight, with flatbed trailers entering the complex and emerging later carrying large shipping containers.

The impending closure of the consulate drew a steady stream of onlookers over the weekend as Chengdu, like Houston, found itself in the limelight of international politics.

People stopped to take selfies and photos, some waving Chinese flags in a show of patriotism and others just capturing the moment. A man who tried to unfurl a large placard late Sunday that he called an open letter to the Chinese government was quickly escorted away.

The US alleged that the Houston consulate was a nest of Chinese spies who tried to steal data from facilities in Texas, including the Texas A&M medical system and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. China said the allegations were “malicious slander.”



Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
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Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

A UN special rapporteur was sanctioned by the United States over her work as an independent investigator scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, a high-profile role in a network of experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Francesca Albanese is among the experts chosen by the 47-member council in Geneva. They report to the body as a means of monitoring human rights records in various countries and the global observance of specific rights.

Special rapporteurs don't represent the UN and have no formal authority. Still, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and other venues working on transnational justice cases.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese on Wednesday that she “has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

Albanese said Thursday that she believed the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission.” She said at a news conference in Slovenia that “I’ll continue to do what I have to do.”

She questioned why she had been sanctioned — “for having exposed a genocide? For having denounced the system? They never challenged me on the facts.”

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for a “prompt reversal” of the US sanctions. He added that “even in face of fierce disagreement, UN member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures.”

Prominent expert

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has developed an unusually high profile as the special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, a post she has held since May 2022.

Last week, she named several large US companies among those aiding Israel as it fights a war with Hamas in Gaza, saying her report “shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many.”

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with the Human Rights Council, Albanese and previous rapporteurs, accusing them of bias. It has refused to cooperate with a special “Commission of Inquiry” established following a 2021 conflict with Hamas.

Albanese has been vocal about what she describes as a genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the US, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied the accusation.

‘Nothing justifies what Israel is doing’

In recent weeks, Albanese issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. She also has been a strong supporter of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegations of war crimes.

Albanese said at a news conference last year that she has “always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate,” adding that criticism wouldn't force her to step down.

“It just infuriates me, it pisses me off, of course it does, but then it creates even more pressure not to step back,” she said. “Human rights work is first and foremost amplifying the voice of people who are not heard.”

She added that “of course, one condemned Hamas — how not to condemn Hamas? But at the same time, nothing justifies what Israel is doing.”

Albanese became an affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University in 2015, and has taught and lectured in recent years at various universities in Europe and the Middle East. She also has written publications and opinions on Palestinian issues.

Albanese worked between 2003 and 2013 with arms of the UN, including the legal affairs department of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, and the UN human rights office, according to her biography on the Georgetown website.

She was in Washington between 2013 and 2015 and worked for an American nongovernmental organization, Project Concern International, as an adviser on protection issues during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Member of a small group

Albanese is one of 14 current council-appointed experts on specific countries and territories.

Special rapporteurs, who document rights violations and abuses, usually have renewable mandates of one year and generally work without the support of the country under investigation. There are rapporteurs for Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Russia and Syria.

There also are three country-specific “independent experts,” a role more focused on technical assistance, for the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia.

Additionally, there are several dozen “thematic mandates,” which task experts or working groups to analyze phenomena related to particular human rights. Those include special rapporteurs on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the human rights of migrants, the elimination of discrimination against people affected by leprosy and the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children.