The United States of America has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, citing threat to “American intellectual property and private information” as the main reason to have provoked such a drastic step.
As per sources, China had been given 72 hours to shut the Houston consulate.
China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the order calling it an ‘outrageous and unjustified move’ and that that it will sabotage China-U.S. relations, an Indian Express report read.
Sources indicate that Beijing is strongly considering shutting the U.S. consulate in Wuhan in retaliation.
U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the decision to shut the consulate was taken because China was “stealing” intellectual property.
Only on Tuesday, the U.S accused China of sponsoring criminal hackers to steal Covid-19 vaccine research and intellectual property from hundreds of U.S. companies. The U.S. indicted two Chinese nationals in relation to the hacking reported.
America’s move to shut the Houston consulate is being seen as a direct reaction to China’s massive spying and other influence operations in the U.S over the years.
It was unclear as to why the Houston consulate alone, of the five consulates in total in U.S, was singled out. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, in a regular news briefing said, “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.”
He added, “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.”
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, in a statement said, “The United States will not tolerate the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) violation of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated PRC’s unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behaviour,” The Hindu reported.
Tensions have been escalating between the two countries for some time now. The Trump administration has clashed on several issues with Beijing relating to trade and the COVID. Very recently, Trump levelled severe criticism against Beijing’s move of imposing a controversial new security law in Hong Kong that shall significantly curb freedom guaranteed to Hong kong by the British in 1997.
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