China shuts down American Chamber of Commerce in southwestern city of Chengdu

The American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China has confirmed with reporters that the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has ordered it to close down.

On Tuesday, officials from the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Southwest China told media that Chinese authorities had instructed them to cease operations in Chengdu.

The officials said they had been told to “no longer carry out any activities in the name of the American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China.”

On Tuesday, the official website for AmCham in Southwest China was down.

The chamber’s chairman, Benjamin Wang, told Reuters that they were in discussion with Chinese authorities over the future direction of the business advocacy group, but said they had not yet been given specific reasons for the forced closure.

Wang said that China's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) was seemingly imposing a law that restricted countries with a presence in China to maintain only one official chamber of commerce.

The US has five Chamber of Commerce offices in China, with 30 working groups.

The closure comes as tensions between China and the US continue to simmer, with the ongoing trade war and disputes over human rights. Meanwhile, the US insisting on probing further into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic has further amplified animosity.

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