A Chinese investigator accused of lying to the FBI about her military affiliation has taken refuge in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, according to court documents, and has increased tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The confrontation in San Francisco occurs at the same time that the US ordered the closure of the Chinese Chinese consulate in Houston, due to its participation in the theft of “American intellectual property and private information.”
China called the shutdown “unprecedented” and an “outrageous” escalation, and threatened retaliation, and state media released a poll asking which US consulates should be closed.
Donald Trump said in response to a question at a Wednesday night briefing that closing more consulates was “always possible.”
Investigator Juan Tang is named in a procedural memorandum filed Monday in San Francisco federal district court calling for the continued detention of another Chinese investigator at Stanford, who is also accused of lying about ties to the People’s Liberation Army. from China (EPL) on your visa application.
Tang is accused of claiming that she had never served on the PLA on her visa application, when an open source investigation allegedly uncovered a photo of her in the PLA civilian cadre uniform and further evidence that she had been an investigator for the U.S. Army. Air Force. Medical University. In an interview with the FBI on June 20, according to the document, she claimed not to recognize the uniform insignia she wears in the photo.
“That same day, the FBI executed a search warrant for Tang’s residence, and a search in his electronic media found more evidence of Tang PLA affiliation,” the memo said, first reported by the news site. Axios. “The FBI evaluates that sometime after Tang’s search and interview on June 29, 2020, Tang went to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, where the FBI evaluates that she has stayed.”
In the memo, two other Chinese citizens with PLA ties are said to have come to California as false-pretending investigators, with the goal of stealing intellectual property from American universities. He said Tang’s flight to the San Francisco consulate and the other cases, where the accused allegedly erased files on hard drives and smartphones, showed that Beijing “intended to protect its officials from prosecution in the United States.”
In Houston, fire services were called after smoke was seen coming out of the complex. US officials said the staff, who received 72 hours to leave the country, was burning documents on their land.
A Republican senator claimed that the consulate, which covered several southern states, was a “spy center”.
It is unclear what caused the Houston shutdown. During a visit to Denmark on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested that the move reflected a decision by the United States to be less tolerant of Chinese behavior.
“President Trump has said ‘enough.’ We are not going to let this continue to happen, ”said Pompeo. “We are setting clear expectations for how the Chinese Communist Party will behave.”
On Wednesday, Chinese state media suggested the possibility of shutting down US consulates, posting a Twitter poll asking users to choose between missions in Hong Kong, Chengdu, Guangzhou and others.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin criticized the closure of Houston on Wednesday, saying: “China strongly condemns a movement so outrageous and unjustified that it will sabotage relations between China and the United States.” “We urge the US to immediately withdraw its wrong decision, otherwise China will take the necessary and legitimate reactions.”
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