Trump closed the Chinese Consulate in Houston. There's a fire in the courtyard

[octoberlib]

Link to tweet

This video shared with us by a viewer who lives next to the Consulate General of China in #Houston shows fire and activity in the courtyard of the building.
DETAILS SO FAR: https://click2houston.com/news/local/2020/07/22/houston-fire-and-police-responding-to-reports-of-documents-being-burned-at-consulate-general-of-china/


CHANGSHA, China — The United States has ordered China to close its consulate general in Houston "in order to protect American intellectual property and American's private information," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Wednesday.

Beijing vowed to retaliate against the order, calling it "an unprecedented escalation" in a broader conflict between the world's two biggest economies, which now encompasses trade and technology, freedom of the press and religion, and the coronavirus and the race for a vaccine.

“The U.S. has far more diplomatic missions and staff working in China. So if the U.S. is bent on going down this wrong path, we will resolutely respond,” Wang Wenbin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters Wednesday.

The State Department did not elaborate on the alleged violations, but Ortagus suggested that China had violated the Vienna Convention, which says diplomats must "respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State" and "have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-vows-to-retaliate-after-us-orders-closure-its-consulate-in-houston/2020/07/22/41e5c6ea-cbf1-11ea-99b0-8426e26d203b_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_china-us-445am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans