The United States has unexpectedly ordered China to shut down its embassy in Houston in what Beijing warned was an outrageous and unjustified move that would only damage the relations between the two countries and trigger retaliation against it.
Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed during a media briefing in Beijing that Washington had ordered on Tuesday that the Houston consulate of China halt operations and evacuate all staff within 72 hours.
Wang did not specify whether the U.S. had given any reason for closing the consular office. However, China planned to "react with firm countermeasures" if the Trump administration did not reverse this erroneous decision, Wang said, as reported by Bloomberg News.
According to the U.S. State Department, it ordered the Chinese consulate closed to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information, without further elaborating.
In recent years, at least two Chinese citizens have been convicted of stealing sensitive industry trade secrets in Houston. The embassy is one of five that the Chinese government operates in the U.S. along with another consulate in Washington.
President Donald Trump replied in answer to a question during a press conference that it was "always possible" that other Chinese missions could be ended as well.
Trump said they thought "there's a fire in one that we did close ... I guess they're burning documents, and I wonder what that is all about," Cate Cadell and David Brunnstrom of Reuters quoted the president as saying in their report.
Emergency personnel had earlier attended the Chinese consular building after responding to reports of a fire but were prevented from entering the premises, the Houston Police Department said. Fires could be seen in multiple containers, with smoke rising into the sky, reports said. Under the Vienna Convention, which covers diplomatic missions, nations can deny access requests from the host country.
Frictions have been heating up between China and the U.S. for some time. Trump's administration has disputed repeatedly with Beijing over trade, 5G networks, the ongoing global health crisis, the South China Sea, and China's implementation of new security legislation in Hong Kong.
Wang accused U.S. embassy staff in China of engaging in "infiltration and interference activities" and claimed the U.S. consulate was constantly publishing stories that smear China on its website.
Typically, China would be expected to carry out a similar move against a U.S. embassy. Besides the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China could go after consular offices in the cities of Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Shenyang.
