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US orders China to close Houston consulate as tensions soar

Staff inside a Chinese embassy have been caught burning papers in a last minute rush after the US evicted China over a rising feud.

Matt Young and AFP
4 min read
July 23, 2020 - 12:34PM
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Staff inside the Chinese embassy in Houston have been caught burning papers and documents in a last minute rush after the US evicted China and ordered it close its consulate, accusing it of ramping up spying operations.

Dramatically escalating diplomatic tensions between the feuding superpowers, the announcement infuriated Beijing, which vowed to retaliate as the two countries squabble over a slew of issues ranging from trade to the coronavirus pandemic — and China’s policies in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.

Neighbours close to the Consulate General of China captured the video of staff burning the documents in the courtyard of the consulate, forcing a call to Texan police and fire officials in bizarre scenes where they were not formally allowed inside and forced to watch from the outside.

“You could just smell the paper burning,” a witness at the scene told KPRC 2, which noted, “people could be seen throwing things into the flaming bins.”

“But, all the firefighters were just surrounding the building. They couldn’t go inside.”

Just an hour later new footage emerged of staff hosing down the burning bins.

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The announcement came swift from the United States, with one Global Times journalist, Hu Xijin, calling the decision “a crazy move” to give China just 72 hours notice.

“We have directed the closure of PRC Consulate General Houston in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters during a visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Denmark.

She added that under the Vienna Convention, states “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs” of the receiving state, but there were no further details about the reasons behind the decision.

In another statement, the State Department said China has engaged in massive spying and influence operations throughout the United States for years.

“These activities have increased markedly in scale and scope over the past few years,” it said.

The Twitter feed of the Houston police force said smoke was observed after they received calls just after 8pm local time, but officers “were not granted access to enter the building”.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China was told that the consulate would have to close, calling it an “outrageous and unjustified move which will sabotage China-US relations”.

“China urges the US to immediately withdraw its wrong decision, or China will definitely take a proper and necessary response,” Wang said at a press briefing.

“It is a political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side, which seriously violates international law … and the bilateral consular agreement between China and the US.”

Experts say it the closure is most likely linked to cyber espionage, when on Tuesday the US justice department accused China of attempting to hack labs working on COVID-19 vaccines and charged two men acting as spies.

Just last week the US, UK and Canada accused Russia of attempting to steal similar research.

“It does appear that the closure of the consulate in Houston is tied to the indictment of individuals for cyber espionage in side the United States,” James Carafano from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation told the BBC.

“We all know that embassies all over the word are friendly and use consulates for intelligence operations. And every country in the world at some point they draw the line. That’s what the US is doing here.

“This administration has been increasingly challenging China. Chinese policies have gotten more aggressive, and as they’ve gotten more aggresive, the United States has been more willing to respond to that.”

DIPLOMATIC ROW

The Chinese Consulate in Houston was opened in 1979 — the first in the year the US and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations, according to its website.

The office covers eight southern US states — including Texas and Florida — and has nearly one million people in the area registered there.

There are five Chinese consulates in the US, as well as an embassy in Washington.

State-run tabloid the Global Times launched a poll on Twitter in English asking people to vote for which US consulate in China should be closed in response, including the ones in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

Twitter is blocked in mainland China.

The US has an embassy in Beijing, plus five consulates in mainland China and one in Hong Kong.

The order to close the Houston consulate came the same day that the US Justice Department indicted two Chinese nationals for seeking to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

The two men, who are believed to be in China, acted in some instances “for their own personal gain” and in others for the benefit of China’s Ministry of State Security, Assistant Attorney-General John Demers said at a news conference.

China rejected the allegations as “slander”.

The Chinese foreign ministry warned its citizens studying in the United States to be “on guard” as US law enforcement agencies “have stepped up arbitrary interrogations, harassment, confiscation of personal belongings and detention” of Chinese students.

More than 300,000 Chinese study in the US.

President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up pressure on China on a wide range of issues, imposing sanctions on Chinese officials over policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

The United States has led denunciations of the treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, a far west region where an estimated one million Uighurs and other ethnic groups are believed to have been held in re-education camps.

The US has also downgraded relations with Hong Kong after China implemented a new security law which Washington says is in violation of Beijing’s promises of autonomy for the territory.

In addition, last week Washington formally declared Beijing’s pursuit of territory and resources in the South China Sea as illegal, explicitly backing the territorial claims of Southeast Asian countries against those of China.

Washington has also infuriated Beijing by banning telecom giant Huawei and seeking the extradition from Canada of top company executive Meng Wanzhou.

Pompeo urged the “entire world” to stand up to China during a visit to Britain.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/us-orders-china-to-close-houston-consulate-as-tensions-soar/news-story/4f3d83b4a3686ba2bee3444e34799bde