U.S. tells China to shut Houston consulate in move China calls 'unprecedented escalation'

[snoop1130]

U.S. tells China to shut Houston consulate in move China calls 'unprecedented escalation'

 

Fire trucks are seen outside the Chinese consulate, where local media reported trash cans filled with documents are being burned in the courtyard, in Houston, Texas, U.S. July 21, 2020, in this still image taken from video obtained from social media. Video taken on July 21, 2020. Mandatory credit Ronald Cline/via REUTERS

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

 

Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan.

 

Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year.

 

The U.S. Department of State confirmed the impending closure of the Houston consulate, after China's foreign ministry reported it had been told to shut the mission.

 

The news ruffled financial markets with a bout of risk aversion in European stock trading.

 

The closure had been ordered "in order to protect American intellectual property and American's private information", State Department Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

 

"The United States 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 behavior," she added, referring to China by its official name, the People's Republic of China.

 

The two countries have clashed recently over trade, technology, a national security law imposed on Hong Kong and China's claims in the South China Sea.

 

China denounced the U.S. order as an escalation.

 

"The unilateral closure of China's consulate general in Houston within a short period of time is an unprecedented escalation of its recent actions against China," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing.

 

"We urge the U.S. to immediately revoke this erroneous decision. Should it insist on going down this wrong path, China will react with firm countermeasures," he said.

 

The U.S. government has been harassing Chinese diplomats and consular staff for some time, Wang said, as well as "intimidating and interrogating Chinese students and confiscating their personal electrical devices, even detaining them".

 

He also said the consulate was operating normally but did not reply to questions about U.S. media reports in Houston on Tuesday night that documents were being burned in a courtyard at the consulate.

 

"It appears to be open burning in a container within the courtyard of the Chinese consulate facility. It does not appear to be an unconfined fire but we have not been allowed access," Houston fire department chief Samuel Pena was quoted as saying by KTRK https://abc13.co/30z3AGP, an ABC television affiliate.

 

"We are standing by and monitoring."

 

Houston police told FOX 26 https://bit.ly/3jtalTe that staff there were burning documents because they are being evicted from the building on Friday afternoon.

 

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department indicted two Chinese nationals for a decade-long cyber espionage campaign in which they were accused of stealing information on weapons designs, drug information, software source code and personal data.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-22

 

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[steven100]

This can only get worse imo, China needs to pay for what it has done to the world economy and the hardship it has caused through COVID.

[Mavideol]

Houston has a large Chinese students community, the US should start to clean the area and revise the visa issuance for some of the students, many are not students but supervisors/to keep an eye on the Chinese students and make sure the CCP propaganda is alive there

[YetAnother]

44 minutes ago, steven100 said:

This can only get worse imo, China needs to pay for what it has done to the world economy and the hardship it has caused through COVID

ahhh, i might agree, but to the chinese, they are just advancing their own interests; they see no responsibility

[from the home of CC]

52 minutes ago, steven100 said:

This can only get worse imo, China needs to pay for what it has done to the world economy and the hardship it has caused through COVID.

if this blows up, everyone will lose..

[from the home of CC]

 burning so many docs that the fire dept was called - consulate cleaner now than the Saudi embassy in Turkey after the chop chop... lol

[galenflagler]

38 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

ahhh, i might agree, but to the chinese, they are just advancing their own interests; they see no responsibility

People are giving way too much credit to China for foresight and planning. They just screwed up. Nobody at the local level wanted to take responsibility for fear of offending the higher ups. And since the structure of Chinese governance re demands that its leaders be just as defensive as Trump, this kind of result was inevitable. Xi is so defensive that any mention of Winnie-the-Pooh  - who is reckoned to bear a strong resemblance to Xi - is expunged upon detection in social media.

[steven100]

8 minutes ago, BestB said:

I believe you can add UK to the list ,China had a row with UK just the other day

yes .... that was over the Hong Kong security law being passed I believe and / or the Huawei issue  ?

What Trump is doing here is the right thing .... he is adamant that China must pay for the enormous cost it has inflicted on the US and everyone else.  imo 

Edited July 22, 2020 by steven100

[metisdead]

Some troll posts have been removed. 

[YetAnother]

worst job in the world ? tie, usa ambassador to north korea and usa ambassador to china

[Susco]

3 hours ago, Sujo said:

You do know the virus came into US from europe dont you. On trumps watch. So who is to blame for the chaos in US while lots of countries are on top of it.

Hmm, I thought the loads of Chinese that landed in New York end of January and early February came from China, now you say they came from Europe.

 

Covid is just the drop that made the bucket flow over, and the current sanctions should have taken place a decade ago.

 

I guess you still don't get it why the attitude against westerners in Asia has become hostile in the last few years

[nobodysfriend]

----> " The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

 

Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan.

 

Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year. "<----

 

 

 

Trump needs a war to unify the american people against China and vote for him in the next elections .

Only that could make him win again ...

Edited July 23, 2020 by nobodysfriend

[nobodysfriend]

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I'm not a Trump supporter.

But I do think someone needs to nuke Beijing for what they've done to the world with their diseases.

A ban on chinese imports would be enough ... better to move production back to the countries who invented most of that stuff , even if that means a rise in prices ... but could lead to better quality and , consequently , to less rubbish , what would be good for the environment ...

[NotEinstein]

Typical US exceptional reaction to China insisting that returning US Wuhan embassy staff should be tested and isolated for 14 days. Bleating about diplomatic immunity is ridiculous. China not having DNA of potential CIA is nearer the mark.

[Dumbastheycome]

13 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

----> " The United States has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down in three days, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and information, amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries.

 

Beijing condemned the order and threatened retaliation. A source said China was considering closing the U.S. consulate in the city of Wuhan.

 

Ties between the United States and China have become increasingly tense since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the beginning of the year. "<----

 

 

 

Trump needs a war to unify the american people against China and vote for him in the next elections .

Only that could make him win again ...

I suspect you are  close to the truth  !

[Rookiescot]

Thing is China has been irritating lots of countries for a long time. Its now starting to see some pushback.

Stealing intellectual properties. Ignoring copyrights. Hacking. Territorial claims on land and islands which are nowhere near them. Ignoring the UN. Human rights abuses. Failing to comply with international agreements. Bullying its neighbours. This list is endless.

Remember NOTHING happens in China without Xi's approval. His power is absolute.

So its about time the world started to treat China as a pariah state.

[Isaan sailor]

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

A ban on chinese imports would be enough ... better to move production back to the countries who invented most of that stuff , even if that means a rise in prices ... but could lead to better quality and , consequently , to less rubbish , what would be good for the environment ...

If your home country won’t take actions against China—do it yourself, take immediate action.  Boycott Made in China junk. It will make a difference.

[nobodysfriend]

1 minute ago, Isaan sailor said:

If your home country won’t take actions against China—do it yourself, take immediate action.  Boycott Made in China junk. It will make a difference.

Ur right , but difficult to do when living in Thailand ....

[Dumbastheycome]

IMO Trump and his advisors are desperate to find a distraction to his begrudging about face on practical mitigation for C-19. The distraction of this ordering the closure of a singular  consulate rather than all or the Embassy may be based on some information related to the accusations of "espionage" by  suspected  "contractors" to the CCP linked to that  Consulate?

An all out cessation of Diplomatic  links would spell doom for the USA because  despite all the posturing and recriminations  by both sides trade is continuing quietly and beneficially to both sides.

Not sure if designer handbags are an essential component of that but !

It remains to be seen if Trump  can be controlled enough to not eventually resort to actions that will only satisfy his petty personal perceptions "winning".

[Isaan sailor]

7 minutes ago, nobodysfriend said:

Ur right , but difficult to do when living in Thailand ....

You can avoid Chinese products.  At Thai Watsadu I found a set of Thai made stainless steel Allen wrenches—among the many Chinese brands.

At my local bike shop, I purchased a French designed, Taiwanese made mountain bike with Japanese components—Laporte.

Yesterday I purchased some Thai made motion detectors at HomePro—Lumax.

[DaftToPutRealName]

15 hours ago, Sujo said:

You do know the virus came into US from europe dont you. On trumps watch. So who is to blame for the chaos in US while lots of countries are on top of it.

Easy one here - the bunch of idiots in the media who called him racist and xenophobic for closing down the borders, told everyone that being afraid of a virus from China was racist, and that we had more to fear from the yearly flu.

How quickly they ate their words, and now Trump didn't do enough and it's the "Trump" virus. Must be nice to be able to have a memory that only operates on a 3 week cycle.

[DaftToPutRealName]

29 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

You can avoid Chinese products.  At Thai Watsadu I found a set of Thai made stainless steel Allen wrenches—among the many Chinese brands.

At my local bike shop, I purchased a French designed, Taiwanese made mountain bike with Japanese components—Laporte.

Yesterday I purchased some Thai made motion detectors at HomePro—Lumax.

In about a week when your Thai made wrenches inexplicably start warping; buy the Bosch ????

[chilli42]

16 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

if this blows up, everyone will lose..

All will lose but not as badly if this co to yes for another 10 years.  It’s time to man up and stop the nonsense.  They need to understand that their “Warrior Wolf” diplomacy will not help them achieve their goals.

[chilli42]

2 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

A ban on chinese imports would be enough ... better to move production back to the countries who invented most of that stuff , even if that means a rise in prices ... but could lead to better quality and , consequently , to less rubbish , what would be good for the environment ...

This is the greatest fear of the Chinese leaders.  As long as money is flowing and people’s lives in China are getting better, people in China will accept the heavy hand of the government.  Take a way that flow of money and the belief that tomorrow will always be better ... they will have a very big problem on their hands from their own population.

[BritManToo]

50 minutes ago, DB58 said:

Path of travel really isn’t relevant once it enters general population, of this type of virus. So it has to be controlled early which generally means at or about point of origin (China). The world can credit not only covid-19, but the 1958 pandemic and the 1968 pandemic each killed over 1-million worldwide.   China was the origin of each; maybe it can’t be helped where the origin is, but the actions or inactions, after discovering they own that. So being the origin of two (Now 3) of the most deadly pandemics this century you would think that they would have learned proper and responsible actions to contain.

That's assuming the Chinese didn't deliberately spread it in the west.

[Logosone]

Did you see TV footage in the news of the Chinese staff burning papers in a hurry?

 

Lol, and they dare to protest. If they didn't spy and steal information why are they burning documents?

 

The need to protect against Chinese theft of IP is very serious. Good job Trump for waking everyone up to this requirement. It's starting to be a real problem.

[natway09]

Dangerous times. Escalation here could do more damage than Covid

[Eric Loh]

The Chinese consulate was given just 3 days to move out and to be taken back by US agencies. Normal for consulate to burn their documents and not risk those documents in wrong hands. When Russia closed the American consulate in Moscow in 2018, US staffs burnt their documents too. 

[Calvin1976]

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

The Chinese consulate was given just 3 days to move out and to be taken back by US agencies. Normal for consulate to burn their documents and not risk those documents in wrong hands. When Russia closed the American consulate in Moscow in 2018, US staffs burnt their documents too. 

Heard some jokes like "They are having "barbecue party" to clear the food which stock up in their refrigerator as soon as possible, only 72 hours given" ????

Paper scraper also not safe enough? 

Might be a relief for the diplomats and consulate staff also, able to go back CPP and stay far from the virus.

 

Just wonder which US consulate in CPP may need to have the "barbecue party" soon under CCP countermeasures. ????

Beijing? Wuhan? Shanghai? Chengdu? Shenyang? Guangzhou?

Last but not least, Hong Kong.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Calvin1976

[nauseus]

19 hours ago, steven100 said:

This can only get worse imo, China needs to pay for what it has done to the world economy and the hardship it has caused through COVID.

It will. The Chinese won't want to pay.