People tour the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, July 19, 2020.  (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The Trump administration is preparing to order more Chinese diplomats to leave the country after it abruptly closed the Chinese consulate in Houston, but Chinese analysts urged the US to remember its own record in Hong Kong before widespread political persecution of Chinese people in the name of counter-espionage.

The Washington Times reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration is about to order China to sharply reduce the number of its diplomats posted in the US to levels equal to the number of American diplomats stationed in China, citing a senior official. 

The report also connected the move with FBI claims of a surge in spying cases related to China, but Chinese analysts slammed such reporting, which is like a thief crying "Stop Thief." 

According to the report, the Chinese Embassy in the US has 245 personnel while the US Embassy in China has more than 200.

The personnel amount at embassies and consulates is usually proportionate with people in need of the services, but the US consulate in Hong Kong has an abnormally large number of staff — more than 1,000 and as many as 1,600 in 2019 during the peak of the Hong Kong riots.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday that it is like a thief crying "Stop Thief" for the US to slander Chinese diplomats and even ordinary students and researchers without mentioning what the US is doing in China. 

The Chinese public have been calling for reducing personnel at the US consulate in Hong Kong, which played dirty in instigating the Hong Kong riots in 2019 as well as previous protests. Julie Eadeh, the political unit chief of the US consulate in Hong Kong, met secessionist leaders during the riots several times in 2019. 

The US has been using Hong Kong as a spy center to conduct a color revolution targeting the Chinese mainland for more than two decades, analysts said. 

Many observers regard the US position as a return of McCarthyism. 

Former US Ambassador to China Max Baucus told the media that anti-China rhetoric is "a little bit like Hitler in the 30s. A lot of people knew what was going on was wrong. They knew it was wrong, but they didn't stand up and say anything about it. They felt intimidated," he said.

The Trump administration, for election purposes, is hijacking US China policy in the desperate hope that extreme, irrational policies will win him votes in a disadvantaged situation, Li said. 

From groundless spying accusations against Chinese entities, to closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and the possible deportation of more Chinese diplomats, ant-China sentiment has been fueled in the country, which will result in discrimination against Chinese communities, Li said. 

No matter who wins the election, it will be difficult to clean up the mess Trump has left, he said.