Envoys Do Normal Duties, China Says

PEKING —  Chinese diplomats based in San Francisco have been merely carrying out “their regular consular duties” in the Los Angeles area, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

The Times reported Monday that the United States had complained to China of improper activities in Los Angeles by diplomats from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. One diplomat was reported to have been involved in forming a student group, and another was said to have attempted to buy real estate without the permission of the U.S. government.

China maintained Wednesday that it had received no formal warning from the U.S. government. “The question of one side warning the other did not arise,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

A knowledgeable U.S. official here explained that the United States discovered Chinese diplomats from San Francisco were trying to buy Los Angeles real estate in order to open what amounted to an unauthorized branch office in Southern California. China has no consulate in Los Angeles at the moment, although it has asked the United States for permission to open one soon.

“We told them it was inappropriate, just as it would be inappropriate for us (in Peking) to begin operating in Xian (a Chinese city where the United States has no consulate),” the U.S. official said.