Chinese envoys on notice in US

The US has ordered Chinese diplomats to notify the State Department before meeting with federal and local officials.

Donald Trump said he would ‘probably’ sign a trade deal with Xi Jinping at the Santiago APEC summit in November. Picture: Getty Images

The US has ordered­ Chinese diplomats to notify the State Department before­ meeting with federal and local officials, calling it a “recip­rocal” move.

A senior State Department official said on Thursday that the new restrictions came in ­response to the inability of US diplo­mats to meet with a range of Chinese officials and ­academics.

“Unfortunately in China, US diplomats do not have unfettered access to a range of folks that are important for us to do our job there,” the official said.

“That includes local and provincial level officials, acad­emic institutions, research instit­utes. We have to seek permission and such permission is often denied­.”

The move comes as Washington and Beijing — the world’s two largest economies — are locked in a bitter trade dispute. A partial deal is now being put down in writing, President Don­ald Trump said on Thursday.

Chinese diplomats will henceforth be required to tell the State Department in advance of any official meetings with US diplomats, local or municipal offic­ials, and before any visits to colleges or research institutions.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is just to get closer to a recipro­cal situation,” the official said, emphasising that Chinese diplomats were not being asked to get “permission” for their visits.

The official said he hoped the measure would prompt Beijing to open up its own country a bit more to US diplomats.

The US and China are also at odds over intellectual property rights and human rights questions, including freedom of speech and Hong Kong.

Senate foreign relations committee chairman Jim Risch said he hoped the full Senate would vote soon on legislation that would toughen scrutiny of China’s rule in Hong Kong.

The legislation would require the State Department to evaluate, at least once a year, whether the territory retains sufficient autonomy to justify the special treatment it enjoys under US law.

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation on Wednesday, drawing an angry response from China, which accused US legislators of “sinister intentions” to undermine Hong Kong’s stability.

It warned that bilateral relations would be damaged should the measures — which Mr Trump must ultimately approve — become law. The bills have garnered strong backing in congress­, from Democrats as well as Republicans, despite the delicate US-China trade talks.

The top State Department diplomat for East Asia expressed support for free expression in Hong Kong, at a Senate foreign relations subcommittee hearing on Thursday.

“Freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly — core values that we share with the people of Hong Kong — must be vigorously protected. We continue to urge Beijing to uphold its commitments,” said David Stilwell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Mr Trump raised questions about his commitment to protecting freedoms in Hong Kong when he referred in August to its mass street protests as “riots” that were a matter for China to deal with.

He has since called on China to handle the issue humanely and warned that if anything bad ­happened in Hong Kong it could be bad for trade talks.

Mr Trump said on Saturday that China and the US had reached the first phase of a trade deal that covered agriculture, currency and some aspects of intellectual property protections. He said on Thursday he would “probably” sign it with President Xi Jinping at the APEC forum in Santiago from November 11 to 17.

AFP, Reuters