Editorial | Diplomatic barriers must be removed to ease US-China tension
- A cold war now looms when the two countries should have been celebrating 40 years of official relations – restraint and common sense are needed to avoid making the situation any worse
This year should have been one of celebration for China and the United States; diplomatic relations were established 40 years ago.
But 2019 dawned with the trade war heating up, talk of military conflict over the South China Sea and Taiwan, and accusations of political interference.
Pressures and rivalry built as the months passed and it was perhaps inevitable that American bans and restrictions on students, academics and researchers would be extended to Chinese embassy and consular staff.
The low-key expulsion of two envoys allegedly for spying, followed by a requirement that diplomats notify the State Department of meetings with local officials and education and research institutions, reveals how fraught ties have become.
Beijing understandably reacted angrily. The circumstances of the expulsions in September, believed to be the first since 1987, are unclear.
Sources told The New York Times earlier this month that the pair, one believed to be an intelligence officer, were accompanied by their wives and had driven without permission onto a sensitive military base near Norfolk in Virginia.