Politico | China refuses to commit to closing Houston consulate despite US demand
- Consul general Cai Wei says office is operating normally today and will continue to do so ‘until further notice’
- Official ‘prepared for worst scenario’, but says Beijing has asked US to rescind order
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Gavin Bade on politico.com on July 23, 2020.
The head of the Chinese consulate in Houston will not commit to closing the office – a direct threat of defiance to the State Department’s demand that it be shut down by Friday.
In a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, Cai Wei, the Chinese consul general in Houston, said China is protesting the closure order and his office will remain open “until further notice”.
“Today we are still operating normally, so we will see what will happen tomorrow,” he said, declining to elaborate further.
Cai said Beijing has asked the US to rescind its Tuesday order to close the consulate, which China argues runs afoul of international agreements governing diplomatic relations.
02:23
China calls US order to close Houston consulate ‘political provocation’
“We think that the demand from the US side … is not according to the Vienna convention on consular affairs and also is not according to international practice or [diplomatic] norms, and it violates the China-US consular treaty,” Cai said.
“We prepared for the worst scenario but we’ve also launched a strong protest … so we urge the US to abandon and revoke that wrong decision.”
Cai’s remarks follow reports that Beijing is likely to close a US consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, which is strategically important for the US given its interest in Tibet. But the head of the Houston consulate declined to comment on how Beijing should respond to the order to close his office.
China ‘set to shut US consulate’ in response to closure of Houston facility
Later on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to give a speech on China that is expected to include a call for the Chinese people to pressure or transform the ruling Communist Party, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what consequences it can impose if China refuses to close the consulate, which has been open since 1979.
US officials have accused the Chinese consulate in Houston of being a part of a Communist Party espionage operation in the US.
On Wednesday, Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, tweeted that the office is the “central node of the Communist Party’s vast network of spies & influence operations in the United States”.
Cai rejected those claims, saying that the consulate’s activities are in compliance with international agreements and do not differ from the actions of other nations, including the US.
And he dismissed local news reports that consular staff were burning classified documents in the compound’s courtyard on Tuesday, after getting word of the State Department’s order.
“We have never done this,” he said, referring to espionage. “What we have done is very legal and follows the law and normal practice.”
