America accuses China of what it does itself

By Dennis Etler

In this file photo US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping (off frame) attend a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 29, 2019. (AFP photo)

It should be obvious to any thinking person that the excuse given by the US for closing the Chinese consulate in Houston doesn't hold water. It has nothing to do with "spying" on corporate or medical secrets and everything to do with ratcheting up tensions with the PRC (People's Republic of China) to serve Trump's partisan political interests as the US presidential election nears.

Trump is between a rock and a hard place. His bungling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has set off a cascade of political obstacles for him to overcome. The crises that have befallen the US, as a result, are unprecedented. The health care crisis brought on by COVID-19 has spawned an economic crisis with the US entering into a prolonged period of economic downturn, a social crisis brought on by systemic racism, police brutality and the social dislocation of unemployment and bankruptcies, and an education crisis with one-fifth of American teachers quitting in light of unsafe conditions within the schools while the pandemic continues to spread unabated. Trump's poll numbers have tanked as one should expect. It's amazing that he can retain any support given that this has all occurred under his watch. Rather than make America Great Again he is presiding over its decline and fall.

The prospect for Trump's re-election is therefore quite dim, and his failures should result in the US Senate being taken over by the Democrats as well. As it is a foregone conclusion that the Democrats will retain the House it is more likely than not that they will control all levers of State power. The only thing standing in their way is a conservative Supreme Court packed with Republican justices, but even there their hold on power is equivocal.

Trump, however, realizes that if he can't win, neither can he lose, for if he does he will be subject to relentless prosecution by his political foes, without the protection of the presidency to shield him. Thus he is waging a slash and burn strategy to try and salvage whatever advantages he still possesses. Perhaps the best bet for him is to go the whole hog in attacking China. China has become the bête noire of US politics. The blame game is in full swing and everything that has gone wrong for Trump can be laid at its doorstep, no matter how twisted the narrative has become. His get tough on China charade has forced the Democrats to follow suit to demonstrate that they haven't "gone soft on China" as Trump alleges.

But the spurious charges leveled against China are specious at best. The closing of the Chinese consulate in Houston is a case in point. US embassies and consulates abroad are notorious for being nests of CIA operatives who use their positions to foment US-backed color revolutions and aid and abet fifth column "dissidents" out to further US interests. To accuse Chinese diplomats of espionage is the height of hypocrisy. The Chinese are conducting themselves no differently than they have over the last 35 years, so why shut their consulate down now? It's obviously a political ploy to heighten tensions hoping that it will rebound in Trump's favor.

China did not initiate the tit for tat policy now being implemented by both sides. China's actions across the board have been in response to the aggressive posturing of the US and its allies. Trump, however, sees an aggressive posture towards China as one of the few cards he has left to play, so he is leaving no stone unturned in doing so. No matter who wins in November, however, expect a retreat from the brink as the US has too many of its own wounds to lick.

American flag lowered at US consulate in Chengdu: China state media

The American flag was lowered at the United States consulate in Chengdu on Monday (July 27), days after Beijing ordered it to close in retaliation for the shuttering of the Chinese consulate in Houston.

Dennis Etler is an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs. He’s a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California. He has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California in Berkeley. He recorded this article for Press TV website.