“Political Provocation”: China As US Orders Closure Of Houston Consulate

Beijing:

The United States has ordered China to shut its consulate in Houston and accused it of ramping up spying operations, dramatically escalating diplomatic tensions between the feuding superpowers.

Wednesday’s announcement infuriated Beijing, which vowed to retaliate as the 2 international locations squabble over a slew of points starting from commerce to the coronavirus pandemic and China’s insurance policies in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the South China Sea.

“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 instructed reporters throughout US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s go to to Copenhagen.

She added that beneath the Vienna Convention states “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs” of the receiving state, however there have been no additional particulars concerning the causes behind the choice.

In one other assertion, the State Department stated China has engaged in large spying and affect operations all through the United States for years.

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

Before the information emerged, firefighters and police had been known as to the consulate constructing in Texas on Tuesday night on reviews that paperwork had been being burned within the courtyard, in response to native media.

The Twitter feed of the Houston police drive stated smoke was noticed, however officers “were not granted access to enter the building”.

In Beijing, overseas ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated China was instructed Tuesday that the consulate must shut, 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 stated 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.”

Diplomatic row

The Chinese Consulate in Houston was opened in 1979 — the primary within the yr the US and the People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations, in response to its web site.

The web site says the workplace covers eight southern US states — together with Texas and Florida — and has almost a million individuals within the space registered on the consulate.

There are 5 Chinese consulates within the US, in addition to an embassy in Washington.

State-run tabloid the Global Times launched a ballot on Twitter in English on Wednesday asking individuals to vote for which US consulate in China needs to be closed in response, together with those in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

Twitter is blocked in mainland China.

The US has an embassy in Beijing, plus 5 consulates in mainland China and one in Hong Kong.

The order to shut the Houston consulate got here the identical day that the US Justice Department indicted two Chinese nationals for in search of to steal coronavirus vaccine analysis.

The two males, who’re believed to be in China, acted in some cases “for their own personal gain” and in others for the good thing about China’s Ministry of State Security, Assistant Attorney General John Demers stated at a information convention.

China rejected the allegations as “slander”.

President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up stress on China on a variety of points, imposing sanctions on Chinese officers over insurance policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

The United States has led denunciations of the therapy of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, a far west area the place an estimated a million Uighurs and different ethnic teams are believed to have been held in re-education camps.

The US has additionally downgraded relations with Hong Kong after China applied a brand new safety legislation which Washington says is in violation of Beijing’s guarantees of autonomy for the territory.

In addition, final week Washington formally declared Beijing’s pursuit of territory and sources within the South China Sea as unlawful, explicitly backing the territorial claims of Southeast Asian international locations in opposition to China’s.

Washington has additionally infuriated Beijing by banning telecom big Huawei and in search of the extradition from Canada of high firm government Meng Wanzhou.

Pompeo urged the “entire world” to face as much as China on Tuesday throughout a go to to Britain.