Beijing should close US consulate for Hong Kong, Chinese polls say
- Two-thirds of respondents in survey by nationalist newspaper Global Times name mission in former British colony as their preferred target for retribution
- But source tells Post the US consulate in Chengdu is most likely to get the clear-out order
More than 65 per cent of people who took part in the online poll voted for the US consulate in the former British colony, while the US missions in Guangzhou and Chengdu got just 10 and 7 per cent of the vote respectively.
The nationalist newspaper staged the vote after China’s foreign ministry condemned the US for ordering the closure of the consulate general in the Texan city and urged it to immediately correct its mistake.
A source told the South China Morning Post on Thursday that Beijing was set to close the US consulate in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province, but that has not been officially confirmed.
In a separate poll by news portal Guancha, 66 per cent of 83,000 respondents voted to close the US consulate in Hong Kong and Macau, followed by Guangzhou with 18 per cent and Chengdu with 7 per cent.