U.S. officials take over Chinese Consulate
Eviction comes after Trump administration made espionage allegations
U.S. officials took over the Chinese Consulate in Houston on Friday afternoon, less than an hour after the eviction deadline ordered by the Trump administration earlier this week amid accusations of espionage activity.
Forty minutes after the 4 p.m. eviction deadline passed, a man believed to be a State Department official entered the consulate, along with others, after a small back door was pried open. Officials had earlier tried three separate entrances but were not able to gain entry. Security teams, wearing shirts emblazoned with the words U.S. Department of State, stood watch at the back entrance. The fire department also entered and exited the consulate.
Moments before the eviction deadline, Houston police had set up barricades at the compound, closing off streets near the building the Chinese government has occupied for four decades. Within minutes of the deadline, three white vans pulled out of the consulate, at least two of which had consul plates.
China tells U.S. to shut consulate in Chengdu.
The Trump administration confirmed the closure on Wednesday, citing a need to protect American intellectual property and private information. The Chinese government threatened to retaliate and early Friday announced the closure of a U.S. consulate in Chengdu.
The order to close the consulate resurged speculation of espionage activity in Texas, although it’s unknown what activity, if any, might have originated at the Montrose building.
The Justice Department on Tuesday indicted two suspected Chinese hackers, alleging they targeted U.S. companies conducting COVID-19 research. Several research facilities within the Texas Medical Center are in
volved in that work. Federal authorities also claimed the alleged hackers stole “business proposals and other documents concerning space and satellite applications” from an unnamed technology firm in Texas. That firm was just one of 25 victims across the U.S. and abroad that were named in the indictment, however.
On Thursday, federal authorities said they believed the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco was harboring a Chinese researcher, the Associated Press reported. The person at the consulate, according to the U.S. Justice Department, was Tuan Dang, a woman accused of lying about her background in the Communist Party’s military wing on a visa application.
While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday described the closure in Houston as a penalty for “this long challenge of the Chinese Communist Party stealing intellectual property,” the Chinese government still maintains that its intelligence efforts are no different than those that other nations run.
The Mayor’s Office of Trade and International Affairs, which is the first point of contact with the more than 90 international consulates in Houston, has not had any direct contact with the Chinese consulate since the federal government’s directive on
Tuesday, said Chris Olson, the director of the office.
“It really caught all of us by surprise,” he said.
Hours after the directive, local news outlets shared a video of the Houston Fire Department responding to what appeared to be consulate staff burning documents in the consulate courtyard on Tuesday night. On Friday afternoon, they finished clearing the building.
All morning on Friday, workers walked back and forth loading up two U-Haul trucks with heavy bags from a side entrance on Harold Street, clearing out the building as camera crews filmed and crowds formed. Several workers dumped trash bags into a nearby dumpster that was soon full. By mid-morning, the side entrance was littered with what appeared to be shredded paper. A large black van pulled into the garage, and workers waved as it took off again.
Among those there to watch the move-out process and protest the consulate were members of the “Whistleblower Movement” and Falun Gong, a Chinese religious movement.
Tao Peng, 47, was among the practitioners who stood silently with banners that had been attached to lampposts and street signs surrounding the consulate.
The Chinese government banned the group in the late 1990s, labeling it a cult, and sent some practitioners to prison or labor camps. Peng said the group has been protesting the consulate every year around this date.
“The persecution should be stopped,” she said. “This consulate does not represent the Chinese people. They are CCP.”
Peng, who works at a local medical center, also said the Chinese government’s actions are to blame for the COVID pandemic.
“We should call the coronavirus the CCP virus,” Peng said. “The Chinese communist party covered up, that’s led to a pandemic.”
Min Fu, another member of Falun Gong and a clinical trials researcher at a local medical center, said she worried about the Chinese government spying through the consulate. She said the group was outside of the consulate Thursday night, as well.
Jerry Sebesta, 69, has lived in the neighborhood for at least 30 years and said he was one of the neighbors who called the fire department on Tuesday night after seeing smoke. He came to watch as the officials gained entry on Friday evening.
“We’ve never ever had a problem with them,” Sebesta said of the consulate.
More than two hours after gaining entry to the building, government officials loaded into a van and exited the premises. Only security and Houston Police Department remained.