Chinese diplomats in the US face new limits on travel and meetings, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.
Under the new rules, senior Chinese diplomats must get approval to visit university campuses or meet with local officials, the US Department of State said in a statement.
Also, any Chinese-hosted cultural events outside of consular posts would need approval if the audience is larger than 50 people.
Photo: Reuters
The department would require that diplomatic social media accounts are identified as government-controlled.
“We’re simply demanding reciprocity,” Pompeo told reporters, indicating that the US restrictions would be lifted if China removes its requirements. “Access for our diplomats in China should be reflective of the access that Chinese diplomats in the United States have.”
It is only the latest in a series of aggressive actions — from economic sanctions to trade limits to diplomatic condemnation — that the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed on China.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said that the US “has imposed yet another unjustified restriction and barrier on Chinese diplomatic and consular personnel.”
In an e-mailed statement responding to the new rules, the embassy urged the US “to correct its mistake, revoke this decision, and provide support and facilitation for Chinese diplomatic and consular personnel in the US to perform their duties.”
Meanwhile, Pompeo said that the US is imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and another official of the organization over their refusal to stop investigating Americans on allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan.
The sanctions were denounced by the court.
Pompeo announced the moves as part of the administration’s pushback against the tribunal, based in The Hague, for investigations into the US and its allies.
The sanctions include a freeze on assets held in the US or subject to US law, and target Bensouda and the court’s head of jurisdiction, Phakiso Mochochoko.
Pompeo said that the ICC, to which the US has never been a party, was “a thoroughly broken and corrupt institution.”
“We will not tolerate its illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction,” Pompeo told reporters.
In addition to the sanctions imposed on Bensouda and Mochochoko, Pompeo said that people who provide them with “material support” in investigating Americans could also face US penalties.
The ICC decried the step as an assault on the rule of law and the international system set up by the Treaty of Rome that created the tribunal in 2002.
The sanctions “are another attempt to interfere with the court’s judicial and prosecutorial independence, and crucial work to address grave crimes of concern to the international community,” the ICC said in a statement. “These coercive acts, directed at an international judicial institution and its civil servants, are unprecedented and constitute serious attacks.”
Additional reporting by AP
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