Opinion

Closure of China’s Houston consulate shows danger of desperate US behaviour

Given the sharp decline in US-China diplomacy, the positive energy of the relationship’s early days has been replaced by petty bickering and recriminations

The brazen disrespect of science and international law by the US is akin to insisting American exceptionalism be respected at the risk of public health

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Firefighters respond to reports of a fire inside the Chinese consulate in Houston on July 21. Houston police and fire officials responded to reports that documents were being burned in the courtyard of the consulate, according to the Houston Police Department. Photo: AP

Philip J. Cunningham has been a regular visitor to China since 1983, working variously as a tour guide, TV producer, freelance writer, independent scholar and teacher.

Published: 5:00pm, 23 Jul 2020Updated: 8:01pm, 23 Jul 2020

The desperate quality of US President Donald Trump’s failing administration is evident in the gross mishandling of the pandemic and the frittering away of diplomatic goodwill, so much so that influential Republican strategists have suggested the approach, “Don’t defend Trump, attack China”.

The sudden closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston is in keeping with the erratic behaviour of the embattled Trump administration. What new provocation has the president triggered today? Expect more in the months leading up to an election that polls and pundits say he is likely to lose.

The expulsion of some 60 Chinese diplomats ends a long, productive chapter of US-China relations and raises fears about the rise of a new kind of US McCarthyism towards China. The Houston consulate was the first consular mission to open during the honeymoon of the US-China relationship in November 1979, not long after Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Texas, during which he famously donned a cowboy hat.