Beijing/Houston: China and the United States were headed for a major diplomatic confrontation as Washington ordered Wednesday the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston. It is a move aimed ‘to protect American intellectual property and private information’, hinting at cyber espionage. The US said that the Chinese Consulate was a threat to the country’s security.
Reacting strongly to the US move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin termed it as ‘an unprecedented escalation’ and warned retaliatory measures. “China demands the US revoke the wrong decision. If the US went ahead, China would take necessary countermeasures,” he warned.
Wang also said the Chinese embassy and consulates in the US had received both explosives and death threats recently.
Earlier, the US State Department in a brief statement said ‘we have directed the closure of PRC (People’s Republic of China) Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information.”
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the US ‘will not tolerate the PRC’s violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC’s unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behaviour’.
Ortagus also pointed to the Vienna Convention, under which states ‘have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs’ of a host country.
The consulate in Houston, Texas, is one of five in the US, not counting the embassy in Washington DC. It is unclear why this one was singled out.
The US move followed the American Justice Department’s claim that hackers working with the Chinese government targeted firms developing vaccines for the coronavirus and stole hundreds of millions of dollars worth of intellectual property and trade secrets from companies across the world.
Both the US and China were locked in a political and strategic conflict in recent months on a host of issues including the origin of the coronavirus, China’s decision to implement its national security law in Hong Kong and deepening trade frictions.
Beijing apparently is looking at options to order the closure of the US Consulate in Wuhan or in Hong Kong, where the Chinese officials had accused the US of backing the anti-China protests.
Earlier, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that July 21, the US abruptly demanded that China’s Consulate General in Houston cease all operations and events.
“It is a political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side, which seriously violates international law, basic norms governing international relations and the bilateral consular agreement between China and the US. China strongly condemns such an outrageous and unjustified move which will sabotage China-US relations,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “We urge the US to immediately withdraw its erroneous decision, otherwise China will make legitimate and necessary reactions,” it said.
Meanwhile, dramatic scenes unfolded in Houston where a fire was reported at the Chinese Consulate General, apparently due to burning of documents in its courtyard, local police said.
Fire and police officials responded immediately to reports that documents were being burned in the courtyard of the Consulate General Tuesday just after 8.00pm, the Houston Police Department (HPD) said.
Videos shared by people around the consulate show several open bins or containers with flames coming out of them. People could be seen throwing things into the flaming bins. Dozens of first responders arrived at the scene but they did not go into the property. Under international convention, the consulate, located at 3417 Montrose Boulevard, is considered Chinese territory.
PTI
