Chinese officials at the Chinese General Consulate in Houston reportedly rushed to burn classified documents on Tuesday evening after learning the United States ordered them to “cease all operations and events” at the consulate over security concerns.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement, “We have directed the closure of PRC Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information.”
This video shared with us by a viewer who lives next to the Consulate General of China in #Houston shows fire and activity in the courtyard of the building.
DETAILS SO FAR: https://t.co/2cOeKoap96 pic.twitter.com/0myxe6HIlC— KPRC2Tulsi (@KPRC2Tulsi) July 22, 2020
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in the statement: “The United States will not tolerate the PRC’s (People Republic of China) 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. President Trump insists on fairness and reciprocity in US-China relations.”
China called the move by the United States an “unprecedented escalation” and threatened to “make a legitimate and necessary response” if the U.S. did not “immediately retract this wrong decision.”
The DOJ and FBI announced an 11-count indictment on Tuesday against two Chinese nationals and residents — Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33 — for allegedly “hacking into the computer systems of hundreds of victim companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individual dissidents, clergy, and democratic and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China.” – READ MORE
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