The United States has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston by Friday, an abrupt move that opens up a new front in a battle for supremacy between the world’s two biggest economies.
Beijing immediately vowed to retaliate for the “unprecedented escalation,” leading to speculation it could order the closure of the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, which has been shuttered since the novel coronavirus epidemic spread across the city in January.
The confrontation in the diplomatic sphere widens a conflict that already incorporated trade and technology, freedom of the press and religion, students and scientists, as well as the coronavirus and the race for a vaccine.
Analysts on both sides say that bilateral relations are at their worst since before 1979, when the United States formally recognized the People’s Republic of China.
“At this rate, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Trump decides to sever diplomatic relations with China someday,” said Chu Shulong, a professor in American politics and diplomacy at Tsinghua University, suggesting that this was part of President Trump’s reelection strategy.
“Trump has no limits, no principles and no morals, and that’s why he can stoop so low and yet few bother to raise an eyebrow,” Chu said.
The Trump administration decided to order the closure of China’s consulate in Houston, which was opened in 1979 and is situated in an area with a large Chinese community, “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday.
“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 said, using the abbreviation for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
The State Department did not elaborate on the alleged infractions, but Ortagus suggested that China had violated the Vienna Convention, which governs diplomatic relations between states. Under the convention, diplomats must “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State” and “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”
The closure came one day after the Justice Department indicted two Chinese hackers, accusing them of stealing intellectual property from U.S. firms doing coronavirus research and other sensitive information.
The Chinese government was suspected of using the Houston consulate as a hub for aggressive intelligence operations that U.S. officials believed had gone too far, and its closure can be read as a rebuke and a warning to Beijing, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
Another U.S. official said that the People’s Liberation Army has been sending Chinese students to American universities, and that the Houston consulate is at the epicenter of all the activities facilitated by the PRC.
Last month, U.S. authorities arrested a Chinese scientific researcher as he tried to fly out of Los Angeles. According to court documents, he said he had been ordered by the head of his military university lab to observe a lab at the University of California in San Francisco, and relay information how to replicate it in China.
The United States expects foreign governments to conduct intelligence activities within its borders, but espionage usually follows a set of unspoken rules. Current and former officials said that in recent years, China has conducted rampant computer hacking and deployed unauthorized personnel to gather intelligence in the United States and harass Chinese nationals who are living here. The Houston consulate was suspected of housing such personnel, another example of how Chinese operations were getting out of hand, the official said.
“The closure could compel Beijing to step up its own counter-intelligence and surveillance operations against the U.S. diplomatic community and U.S. citizens of interest in China,” said Kyle Sullivan, the China practice lead at Martin+Crumpton Group LLC, a risk advisory firm headed by former U.S. intelligence officials.
The country “has very vague laws governing the application of state secrets, so any expatriate traveling to or residing in China should take extra precaution and refrain from carrying with them potentially sensitive information that could be construed as relating to China’s national or economic security.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Copenhagen that the Trump administration is “setting out clear expectations for how the Chinese Communist Party is going to behave.” He is scheduled to give a policy speech Thursday on “Communist China and the future of the free world.”
Pompeo noted the United States had “long complained” about alleged Chinese intellectual property theft.
“Your point that this has been going on for a long time makes our point,” Pompeo told reporters. “President Trump has said ‘enough.’ We’re not going to allow this.”
In London on Tuesday, Pompeo expressed the intention to build an international coalition to counter the growing global influence of China, a frequent target of his wrath.
“It includes every country,” he said. “We hope we can build out a coalition that understands this threat, will work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party it’s not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behavior.”
The first sign of the American order came when Houston NBC affiliate KPRC2 aired video showing people in the courtyard of the consulate apparently burning documents after 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
Police and fire officials went to the scene in response to calls from neighbors but, in accordance with diplomatic rules, did not enter the building, the television station reported.
Witnesses in nearby apartment buildings told police that people were burning paper in what appeared to be trash cans, a police official told the Houston Chronicle. That is a common enough practice that the CIA has a name for it — a “burn down.” The consulate staff had been told they would be evicted from the building at 4 p.m. Friday, the paper quoted the unnamed official as saying.
In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry responded angrily to the order. The U.S. government “abruptly informed” China on Tuesday that it had to immediately close its consulate in Houston, Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.
“The U.S. has far more diplomatic missions and staff working in China. So if the U.S. is bent on going down this wrong path, we will resolutely respond,” Wang said.
In addition to its embassy in Beijing, the United States has consulates in Shenyang, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Guangzhou.
Analysts expect the Chinese government to respond by ordering one of them closed. Beijing was particularly incensed that the United States evacuated its consulate in Wuhan in January, as the coronavirus began spreading rapidly in the city.
It has not reopened, and the embassy and other consulates are operating with skeleton staffs, according to American officials.
It remains unclear if the closure will have any practical effect in stopping industrial espionage.
“There is no doubt that China represents a tremendous espionage threat for the United States,” said Abraham Denmark, Asia Program Director and Senior Fellow with the Kissinger Institute on China and the U.S. at the Wilson Center. “The question here is not China’s culpability —I expect it’s solid —but rather if suddenly closing the consulate in Houston will address the problem.
Hu Xijin, the firebrand editor of the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper who often shares information on Twitter that has not been officially announced, revealed the 72-hour time frame
“This is a crazy move,” he wrote.
The Global Times started polls on Twitter and its Chinese equivalent, Weibo, asking: “Which US consulate general in China is most likely to be closed?” It gave four options: “Hong Kong and Macao, Guangzhou, Chengdu or other.”
The order came amid American attacks on China’s political system, its harassment of Chinese diplomats and its intimidation of Chinese students, Wang said.
He said the consulate had been getting prank phone calls and even received a bomb threat on Monday. He added that U.S. authorities have opened China’s diplomatic pouches and searched Chinese diplomats’ property.
The United States and China have been locked in a tit-for-tat battle for supremacy that began at the start of the Trump administration, centered on trade and technology. Both sides have expelled journalists this year and have been slapping sanctions on each other’s officials.
But the hostilities have become much more serious with Trump’s efforts to blame the Chinese government for the coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan at the end of last year and retaliatory actions over journalists in the two countries.
U.S. officials on Tuesday accused China of sponsoring criminal hackers, including two former engineering students, who were targeting biotech firms around the world working on coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday renewed its travel warning for Chinese students in the United States, advising them to be aware of arbitrary interrogations, the confiscation of personal belongings and possible detentions.
Wang Yong, a professor of international studies at Peking University, said certain people in Washington seem hellbent on promoting a cold war between China and the United States and the complete decoupling of the two countries, not just in the economic arena but across the board.
“I think they have political considerations, mainly around the election,” Wang said. “They are taking such a tough approach, demonizing and turning hostile to China, making China an enemy, to mobilize people domestically and reverse the unfavorable situation of President Trump in the election.”
This would lead to international instability, he said. “In the end, it will harm U.S. interests and harm China. It won’t benefit the United States.”
Chu, the Tsinghua professor, agreed that there was potential for further tension.
“China could always evict a U.S. consulate in retaliation, and that could go on and on,” he said. “If the eviction stays a largely technical move, then the two governments should be able to reach a compromise in the next few months. But if it turns out to be strategic, then this risks escalating into Cold War 2.0.”
Many analysts in China view Trump’s campaign against the country as part of an effort to boost his chances of winning a second term.
“China is an easy target and a ‘big bad guy’ that Trump is all too eager to open fire on in order to win conservatives over in his reelection campaign,” Chu said.
Morello and Harris reported from Washington. John Hudson in Copenhagen and Liu Yang and Lyric Li in Beijing contributed to this report.
© The Washington Post
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