By Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The US State Department said Wednesday that China's consul general in New York was not expelled but reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August.
“Our understanding is that the Consul General reached the end of a regular scheduled rotation in August, and so rotated the position, but was not expelled,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke with Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell earlier Wednesday.
The statement came after CNN reported China’s consul general in New York, Huang Ping, was expelled amid the crisis surrounding a former aide to Hochul, who faces charges of acting as a covert agent for the Chinese government.
It cited, Hochul saying at a news conference that she conveyed her desire to “have the consul general from the People’s Republic of China at the New York Mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the consul general is no longer in the New York Mission.”