It is indeed a sign of the times: the United States government has officially kicked out the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas, giving the resident diplomats and relevant staff members exactly 72 hours to clear everything up and go up.
They have officially ordered them to “cease all operations and events”
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus explained the motif behind the radical move was “in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information” but did not immediately provide additional details.
Another spokesperson elaborated that China “has engaged for years in massive illegal spying and influence operations” and that those “activities have increased markedly in scale and scope over the past few years.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the order was a “political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side, which seriously violates international law, basic norms governing international relations and the bilateral consular agreement between China and the US.
” The Ministry also chose its words carefully, saying that the current US administration is “shifting the blame to China with stigmatization and unwarranted attacks against China’s social system, harassing Chinese diplomatic and consular staff in the US, intimidating and interrogating Chinese students and confiscating their personal electrical devices, even detaining them without cause.
” It added “China is committed to the principle of non-interference. Infiltration and interference is never in the genes and tradition of China’s foreign policy.”
“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,” Ortagus said in the statement.
Sen.
Angus King, an independent of Maine who caucuses with Democrats, said that he was not aware of any “recent intelligence of particular Chinese activities, either with regard to our elections, or the whole confrontation between our two countries — theft of intellectual property” that may have driven the decision.
“There certainly is a good reason to confront China. My concern is, escalating this tension, is it really about confronting China, or does it have something to do with an election in four months?” King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.
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Replaced!