US brands Chinese curbs on American diplomats 'escalation'
13 September, 2020
The US on Saturday (Sep 12) called a decision by Beijing to impose restrictions on all American diplomats on Chinese soil an "escalation", the most recent rebuke within an ongoing tit-for-tat dispute over foreign missions.
Relations between the world's leading two economies experience deteriorated in recent months, with both sides locked found in fierce recriminations over trade disputes, individual rights and the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday China announced "reciprocal restrictions" against US diplomats, times after Washington announced brand-new restrictions on staff doing work for Beijing's foreign missions.
Beijing said that the unspecified countermeasures might connect with all US embassy and consulate personnel, including the consulate-general found in Hong Kong and its own employees, and called the maneuver a good "legitimate and necessary response".
But the US stated on Saturday that the Chinese measures went beyond anything it had done.
A State Section spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity said Beijing's maneuver was an "escalation", citing the targeting of its representative in Hong Kong and constraints on Chinese citizens ending up in Americans in the type of a "new assembly pre-notification requirement".
"These notification requirements today include American citizens without affiliation to the government. We've no such requirement of PRC citizens," the spokesperson said, employing the acronym for the People's Republic of China.
The dispute over foreign missions flared up in July when Washington ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, prompting Beijing to shutter the American occurrence in Chengdu.
The battle over diplomatic outposts is merely one front in an escalating confrontation between the US and China.
Washington has imposed sanctions on officials accused of supporting orchestrate China's mass internment of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in the country's Xinjiang place, a programme which has prompted a worldwide human rights outcry.
Last month it blacklisted officials it accused of suppressing "freedom and democratic processes" in Hong Kong, after the imposition of a countrywide security law aimed at quelling civil unrest on the financial hub.
The approach prompted China to issue its sanctions against several prominent Americans.
President Donald Trump has also provoked a furious response from Chinese officials by blaming Beijing for the global spread of the coronavirus
And Washington in addition has accused Chinese tech firms and systems - from Huawei to TikTok - of employed in the interests of the Chinese Communist Get together.
Beijing denied on Friday it had been wanting to meddle in the upcoming US presidential election after tech giant Microsoft stated it thwarted cyberattacks from abroad organizations - including from China.
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