Beijing retaliated by ordering the United States to close its consulate in Chengdu. (Representative)
Washington:
The United States has ordered China to shut down its consulate in Houston to send a message to Beijing to resume operations to steal U.S. science and technology secrets, a senior State Department official said on Friday.
“There comes a time when you have to say, enough is enough,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity.
Beijing has “blatantly abused its free and open access” to American society by carrying out operations to illegally collect American intellectual property, the official said.
“Houston is a firm demonstration that we are serious.”
On Tuesday, the State Department ordered the closure of the consulate in Texas’ largest city, giving Beijing until Friday to complete the process.
Trucks arrived day and night to remove property and equipment, and plumes of smoke were seen coming from the building on Wednesday, suggesting Chinese authorities were burning documents.
Early Friday, many Chinese officials, all wearing coronavirus masks, were seen loading large bags onto U-Haul trucks and throwing bags into nearby garbage cans.
A Department of Justice official told reporters, also on condition of anonymity, that while the United States expects efforts to spy and steal intellectual property from foreign missions, the activities of Houston “went well”.
They have notably led Chinese students and researchers on what types of information and technology to obtain, recruiting Americans for their technology program, and targeting Chinese dissidents residing in the United States.
Public examples of such behavior, known from a series of criminal cases over the past three years, “are just the tip of the iceberg” of what is known to US intelligence, a declared the head of justice.
A US intelligence official told reporters that the science and technology “collectors” at the Houston consulate “were particularly aggressive and successful.”
On Friday morning, Beijing retaliated by ordering the United States to close its consulate in Chengdu, in Sichuan province.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
