STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 6, ARTSAKHPRESS: “This is false. Reporting on reopening consulates is inaccurate. No such thing is even being considered or discussed,” Dean Lieberman, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said in a statement. “In advance of the meeting, we’ve been discussing a number of agenda items, and I can assure you that reopening consulates has not been part of that discussion.” 

In July 2020, Washington told China to shutter its consulate in Houston, prompting Beijing to retaliate with an order for a US diplomatic facility in the southwestern city of Chengdu to close. The Trump administration said the move was necessary because China directed criminal and covert activity to steal trade secrets and carry out malign influence operations across the US, though it never provided evidence of that, Bloomberg reported.