It was like a scene out of a movie. Consular staff pulling files and destroying documents as a diplomatic mission is abruptly abandoned. Only this time the setting wasn’t Iran or Venezuela, it was Montrose.
Chinese officials were spotted burning papers inside the Houston consulate grounds Tuesday night, prompting a call by neighbors to the fire department as smoke rose from the building. Shortly after, it was reported the U.S. government had ordered the consulate closed “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” according to a State Department spokeswoman.
Why Houston was chosen out of the five consulates general in the United States remains unclear, unless you listen to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who tweeted that the consulate was a “vast network of spies and influence operations.”
What is clear is that this rise in tensions between Washington and Beijing will not only harm relations with the world’s second-largest economy, it will hurt our region unless cooler heads prevail.
The United States accused China of being increasingly aggressive in conducting “massive illegal spying and influence operations throughout the United States.” On Tuesday, the Justice Department indicted two Chinese hackers for allegedly targeting American companies involved in coronavirus research.
China has been involved, through a variety of means, in trying to steal information from the United States, experts said, calling it a closed issue. But shuttering a consulate is not an action to be taken lightly.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, called the move a “political provocation” that will sabotage China-U.S. relations, during a press conference Wednesday. Unless the U.S. reconsiders, China will respond with “firm countermeasures,” he said.
“This is a huge escalation,” Steven Lewis, an expert in Chinese-American relations at the Baker Institute, told the editorial board Wednesday. “I can’t think of an example of closing a consulate over these kinds of charges.”
Even the accusations that would eventually result in indictments over Russian meddling in the 2016 election did not lead to consular closures. Instead, the Obama administration ordered the expulsion of 35 diplomats, instituted sanctions and closed two properties used by Russia — a strong retaliation that was still in keeping with diplomatic interests, experts said.
That the move with China comes almost three months before an election where President Trump’s poll numbers are cratering over his response to the pandemic cannot be ignored. China provides the administration an easy target to vilify and shore up votes.
That doesn’t mean the U.S. government’s actions can be dismissed as purely political posturing, said Richard Stoll, a political science professor at Rice University.
“You can question the timing, but this is not something the administration made up,” he said. Along with spying accusations, China has engaged in widespread human rights abuses, poorly handled the initial coronavirus outbreak, is cracking down on protesters and dissidents in Hong Kong, and has taken a more belligerent posture in its claims of control over the South China Sea.
All those actions have been condemned by the international community.
It would be easier to connect Chinese transgressions to the closing of the consulate if President Trump had presented a clear strategy when dealing with Beijing. Instead, he has been as likely to praise President Xi Jinping as he is to call COVID-19 the “kung flu;” as liable to ask for China’s help investigating political opponents as he is denouncing unfair trade practices.
We urge American and Chinese officials to sit down and resolve these issues before they further strain relations. Our countries have become increasingly entwined and any pull back will result in economic damage for both, an especially daunting prospect as the world works to recover from the pandemic.
