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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
Opinion
Opinion
by Philip J. Cunningham
Opinion
by Philip J. Cunningham

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  • Given the sharp decline in US-China diplomacy, the positive energy of the relationship’s early days has been replaced by petty bickering and recriminations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
Philip J. Cunningham
Philip J. Cunningham
Why you can trust SCMP

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.

Given the sharp decline in US-China diplomacy, the positive energy of those heady, early days has been replaced by petty bickering. A tit-for-tat dynamic is evident as the world’s two biggest economies compete in trade and security affairs. Just as each side has responded in kind to journalist expulsions, and diplomatic invective is met with provocative language on both sides, expect a US consulate in China to be closed in response.

Speculation suggests the US consulate in Wuhan will be closed, but other missions are at risk, too. Wuhan is in some ways comparable to the Houston mission, located in the heartland and of regional importance but low in international profile.

02:23

China calls US order to close Houston consulate ‘political provocation’

China calls US order to close Houston consulate ‘political provocation’
At least part of the ire from the US State Department under the belligerent leadership of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is founded on diplomatic tomfoolery. The US consulate in Wuhan has largely run on empty since a mysterious virus, now known as Covid-19, first emerged in the region. Now the staff want to return.
The State Department seems to believe that diplomatic immunity means US diplomats are not subject to the same tests and preventive quarantine measures as everyone else entering China. Diplomats are traditionally given perks not available to ordinary citizens, such as diplomatic channels at airports, diplomatic pouch privileges and the right to ignore parking tickets and petty violations of the law, but since when are diplomats free to ignore the laws of nature?

It’s neither good science nor good logic to confuse diplomatic immunity with immunity from Covid-19. It’s not fair or diplomatic to put countless others at risk just because you don’t want to be delayed upon flying in from a hot zone.

The same sort of cavalier attitude evident in Trump’s dismissive briefings on the virus threat was evident in the case of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which had one of the most serious virus outbreaks in the US military to date. The captain of the ship, Brett Crozier, grew frustrated with the Navy’s attitude towards the health of his sailors when it was evident the Covid-19 outbreak on board could not be humanely contained at sea.

01:30

US warship captain seeks to isolate crew members as coronavirus spreads

US warship captain seeks to isolate crew members as coronavirus spreads

Frustrated, he made a complaint outside Navy channels, for which he was dismissed and lost command of his ship. Even so, he was honoured by his crew and in the court of public opinion for putting a higher value on human life than the Navy’s face-saving protocol.

Unfortunately, the good ship America has no captain of similar moral fibre. Trump has alternated between promoting himself and denying science, leading to a botched response to the pandemic. Pompeo, a Trump sycophant, seems to share the belief of his boss that political privilege ranks higher than good science and common sense.

China has every reason to request that fresh arrivals from the US – which has seen nearly 150,000 deaths from Covid-19 – to submit to quarantine until infection can be ruled out. The US has a long history of setting and changing the rules but not playing by them, though. It uses consulates and embassies as spy centres yet protests, as alleged in the case of China’s Houston consulate, when other countries do the same.

It demands war criminals be tried in the International Court of Justice but refuses to join it for fear of jeopardising Americans who might be guilty of war crimes. It ignores environmental protocols.

If the US wants to restaff the China missions it abandoned in February, it is only reasonable it should support reasonable measures to contain the disease and respect science-based mitigation to that effect. It could furthermore be expected that its diplomats would enjoy some of the best facilities China has to offer. An American university administrator who was quarantined for two weeks in Shanghai after visiting Europe told me the hotel was clean and comfortable, the food good and the Wi-fi signal better than at home.

By most reports, the facilities used to temporarily quarantine foreigners in China are superior to those in the US, where the sloppy, ad hoc response has left many stranded and without assistance. What is the State Department asking for, other than to insist American exceptionalism be respected at the risk of endangering public health?

Science doesn’t work that way, and neither should diplomacy. Diplomatic immunity does not grant viral immunity. The sooner the “America-firsters” and anti-science bigots in the Trump administration recognise that, the better.

Philip J. Cunningham is the author of Tiananmen Moon, a first-hand account of the 1989 Beijing student protests

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Chinese consulate closure a sign of Trump desperation
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