The tension between the US and China gets worse as the Chinese Consulate in Houston Closed when a spy was housed by the diplomatic personnel, which the embassy denied as untrue, even accusing the Trump Administration of creating a situation.
US officials order the embassy closed on Tuesday after allegations of Chinese spies and espionage activities using diplomatic institutions to steal information. The state department has long suspected the Chinese of taking advantage of diplomatic institutions as funnel points for their spying activities, confirmed CNN last Friday.
Enforcing the order of the US government were federal agents and police authorities who barged in the embassy in Houston, looking for evidence against the Chinese. One witness described seeing black SUVs, trucks, two white vans, with a locksmith in full view of the public and press at borders of the embassy.
According to US officials in a press brief with reporters, mentioned that the embassy in Houston has been caught red-handed and implicated in a fraud investigation. The Chinese officials in the embassy have been spying and directing the pilferage of data via the researchers hired by a Texas research institution. Chinese diplomats have been actively involved in harvesting information, but it is only now that the government has taken definitive action, mentioned The Straits Times.
One official in the US Justice Department explained that the embassy officials in Houston are only part of a larger network working to steal U.S. information, further stating that more than 25 cities were directed and controled by the Houston hub. The Chinese consuls and personnel are giving their moles and spies in all 25+ cities guidance on how to elude U.S. authorities probing their nefarious activities. This ring is existing nationwide in America.
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A Chinese official has said that the U.S. has an ultimatum of 72-hours to stop all operations and events, in the Houston embassy exactly Tuesday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry official considers the move as an escalation that is not good. Efforts to paint the Americans move as illegal was hinted in the Chinese statement that was caused by the closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston.
The State of U.S. and China relations have sunk low during the past year. Reasons for it are the trade war, COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the harsh critique of human rights getting trashed in Hong Kong and Xinjiang province. One of their biggest problems is illegal Chinese annexation in the South China Sea.
Washington demanding the Houston embassy to shut down enabled a scenario to allow Federal agents to enter the building last Friday afternoon. Beijing retaliated by ordering the closing of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
On late Tuesday evening, Houston police got reports of smoke in the Chinese embassy courtyard that was captured by locale media and some residents nearby. Burning of the documents is alleged to be done by embassy officials and personnel.
Wednesday, the US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus order the consulate to close, stressing that this is to safeguard American intellectual property and Americans' private information, cited Al Jazeera.
The Chinese Consulate in Houston closed because of what China did when US officials were prevented from getting diplomatic materials. This spurred the decision to shut down the Houston embassy.
China blocking the retrieval of the satchels and upheld the Vienna Convention, irked Pompeo and result in the Houston spy hub close, cited Fox 40.
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