I'm not sure how to interpret what's happening between the US and China at the moment - especially from a business perspective...

If I'm a US company operating (i.e., selling) in China, should I be worried? What if I don't operate in China but have outsourced manufacturing/coding/whatever there - should I seriously be looking at relocation?

The DOJ just recently brought charges against two Chinese hackers selling information to the Chinese. If I had to speculate this location somehow was involved. However, that's just a guess.

What are your guys' thoughts on the fire? Link to news report below. They're stating that the consulate members tried to burn down some sensitive documents. Seems really odd that you would use fire over a precision shredder in 2020. Looking to hear other perspective on this. Definitely some strange times we're living through currently.

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/us-orders-china-to-close-con...

For paper, burning is fast-ish and makes sure nothing can be recovered, still good tradition. As far as I know embassies etc even sometimes have safes with included fire charges that burn the contents on button-press.

In terms of diplomatic escalation is this higher or lower than expelling diplomats?

I think higher. You can always send other diplomats but you can't make a new place for them to crash.

There are multiple consulates in the US though. They server a different function compared to embassy, but there is overlap.

Election is coming up and somebody is tanking in the polls. Some good old saber rattling and stoke up the fervour.

Seems like the pot is calling the kettle black and waiting to blast it for its retaliation. I wonder which way we will spin it. Fun times, this was probably going to happen earlier if not for covid. What really kicked this off? Was it when they stopped accepting the world's garbage? Cant recall if we were poking them this hard before that..