U.S. Will No Longer Use Chinese-Owned Waldorf Hotel
The State Department will abandon decades of tradition this fall at the annual U.N. General Assembly by setting up shop in a hotel other than New York’s iconic Waldorf-Astoria, which was purchased last year by a Chinese company.
Officials said Wednesday the department would base its U.N. operations at the New York Palace Hotel instead of the famed Waldorf. The officials did not give a reason for the switch, which will affect hundreds of American diplomats and support staff who travel to New York for the General Assembly each September and usually stay and hold meetings on two secured floors at the Waldorf.
However, officials pointed to Hilton Worldwide’s sale of the Waldorf-Astoria to China’s Anbang Insurance Group for $1.95 billion last year. Terms of the sale allow them to run the hotel for the next 100 years but also call for “a major renovation” that officials say has raised eyebrows in Washington, where fears of Chinese eavesdropping and cyberespionage run high.
Officials say the State Department’s decision probably would affect the traveling operations of the White House, which also sends large numbers of officials to New York for the General Assembly, including the president, who has in the past stayed at the Waldorf.
This article appeared in print on page 4 of edition of Hamodia.
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