Washington demands Beijing to close the Chinese consulate in Houston

Hong Kong- The United States has asked China to “cease all operations and events” at its consulate in Houston, Texas, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in an “unprecedented escalation” in recent actions taken by Washington.

According to the CNN, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus claimed the consulate was directed to close “in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information.”

Late Tuesday evening, police in Houston said “they received reports of smoke in the courtyard outside the consulate, located on Montrose Boulevard, in the city’s Midtown area.

Firefighters responded to reports of papers being burned on the consulate grounds Tuesday night but were barred entry, according to Houston news media reports.

In a statement posted on its official social media, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the request to close the consulate was 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,” it said. “We urge the US to immediately withdraw its erroneous decision; otherwise China will make legitimate and necessary reactions.”

The statement goes on to say the US has been “shifting the blame to China with stigmatization and unwarranted attacks against China’s social system, harassing Chinese diplomatic and consular staff in the US, intimidating and interrogating Chinese students and confiscating their personal electrical devices, even detaining them without cause.”

It added “China is committed to the principle of non-interference. Infiltration and interference is never in the genes and tradition of China’s foreign policy.”

Source: CNN