China says US is closing Houston consulate based on 'vicious slander'
Pompeo said the new strategy with China is ‘distrust and verify’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chinese officials said Thursday that “vicious slander” is behind America's decision to close the Chinese consulate in Houston after government officials cited threats of espionage and intellectual property theft.
“For more than 40 years, the consulate general has been promoting bilateral friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a Thursday press conference. “The U.S. accusations that China’s consulate general in Houston engaged in activities inconsistent with its capacity are nothing but vicious slanders.”
State Department officials ordered the immediate suspension of all activity and events at the consulate after Houston fire-fighters and police responded to smoke rising from the courtyard and reports that documents were being burned, according to a local news outlet Tuesday night.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SHUTTERED CHINESE CONSULATE IN HOUSTON DUE TO TARGETING OF US ENERGY FIRMS: SOURCES
Fire-fighting crews were not allowed in as they do not have jurisdictional rights on the consulate, but a video from a resident near the consulate showed trashcans on fire in the courtyard.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told Fox News that the consulate was closed “to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information.”
Wenbin said that on two separate occasions the U.S. opened and confiscated China’s diplomatic pouches in July 2018 and January 2020, adding that China will take “necessary” actions against the United State, though he did not elaborate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CHINA THREATENS RETALIATION AFTER US ORDERS CLOSURE OF HOUSTON CONSULATE
“The U.S. demand of the closure of China’s consulate general in Houston is in serious violation of international law," Wenbin said Thursday. “It severely damages bilateral relations, a move that undercuts the bond of friendship between Chinese and American people.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Chinese consulate in Houston a “hub of spying and IP theft” and said that the relationship the U.S. once had with China has changed.
“President Reagan dealt with the Soviets on the basis of 'trust but verify.' When it comes to the CCP [Communist Party of China], I say, “distrust and verify,” Pompeo said during a press conference at the Nixon Library Thursday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Pompeo also addressed the creation of a coalition made of “like-minded nations…a new alliance of democracies,” a proposal Pompeo first voiced during his meeting with the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in London this week.
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The coalition’s aim would be to confront China’s government.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“The UN, NATO, the G7, the G20, our combined economic, diplomatic, and military power is surely enough to meet this challenge, if directed properly,” Pompeo said Thursday. “Securing our freedoms from the Chinese Communist Party is the mission of our time.”
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and Rich Edson contributed to this report.