This combination of pictures created on May 14, 2020 shows recent portraits of China�s President Xi Jinping (L) and US President Donald Trump. (Photo by AFP)

The United States has warned Americans of prolonged interrogations and extended detention if arrested in China, amid an escalation of tensions between Beijing and Washington.

The US State Department warned in an email to its citizens in China that US citizens may be detained without access to US consular services or information about their alleged crime.

The warning said for reasons related to state security, US citizens may be arrested by Chinese security forces and face prolonged interrogations and extended detention.

Security personnel may detain and/or deport US citizens for sending private electronic messages critical of the Chinese government, the warning said.

The State Department did not specify what had prompted the warning.

In the meantime, tensions have been escalating between Beijing and Washington

Political experts analyzing international foreign policy affairs say the relationship between the US and China has been deteriorating in all aspects due to an ongoing trade war between the two countries, strained diplomatic ties over Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the risk of military confrontation between the two powers reaching a new level, unprecedented in past decades, due to US provocations in the territorial waters of China.

Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs, says the US has launched an all-out assault on China. The US assault has been on all fronts, economic, diplomatic, and military.

It uses all the tools in its bag of dirty tricks to destabilize China, engaging in a trade war, sabotaging leading Chinese companies such as Huawei, and supporting separatists in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Etler said.

All these efforts have failed, leaving its only recourse to escalate its military brinkmanship in China�s backyard. The sending of an armada of naval aircraft carriers to the South China Sea is just the latest attempt to bully China and fish in troubled waters, hoping to heighten tensions in the region, he assumed.

SOURCE: PRESS TV