Ted Cruz said Sunday that more Chinese consulates could be closed in the US after the Houston base was closed last week following revelations of espionage at the facility.
“They may be closed,” said the Texas senator when asked about other possible closings.
“That consulate was closed because it had engaged in espionage, had been involved in the theft of intellectual property, it had been used as a base for spying in Houston and throughout the Southwest,” Cruz told CBS News during an interview with Margaret Brenner, presenter. from Face the Nation. Sunday morning.
“And I have long argued that China represents the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States for the next century,” he continued.
“The most important consequence of the foreign policy of this pandemic,” Cruz said, “is that people understand the threat that China represents.”
Cruz is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has often warned of the threat China poses to the United States, including visiting Hong Kong to support protesters facing Beijing.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz said Washington could close more Chinese consulates after the Houston complex ceased operations on Friday. “They could well be closed,” he said of the remaining four consulates.
“I have argued that China represents the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States for the next century,” Cruz told CBS presenter Margaret Brenner on Sunday morning, claiming that the Houston consulate in particular was a “base for spying.”
Beijing was told that the Houston consulate had until 4:00 pm Friday to stop operating.
That day, officials were seen knocking on the door after diplomats and employees vacated the property.
Shortly after the orders were issued, a video of diplomats burning documents appeared in the consulate yard.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a tweet Wednesday morning that “the Chinese consulate in Houston is a center for mass espionage, so its closure is long overdue.”
The consulate was raided by US officials on Friday, shortly after it officially closed its business activities.
The consulate, which Donald Trump forced to close, was reportedly a hot bed of spies and was allegedly being used to steal medical and scientific research.
On Friday afternoon, hours after the consulate officially closed and the diplomats left, a group of men who appeared to be US officials were seen forcing a back door open.
The back door of the Houston consulate was forced to open on Friday afternoon by what appeared to be teams of US officials heading to the empty building.
The group of men was seen forcing the doors of the consulate to open in Texas just hours after Chinese employees and diplomats left.
A trio of consular vehicles leave the Chinese Consulate General building late on Friday.
The Chinese consulate in Houston closed its doors on Friday, following an announcement on Wednesday.
Small fires were seen in the building’s courtyard on Tuesday night
According to a Reuters witness, consulate staff left the building shortly after 4 p.m. and drove away. The back door was forced open.
Chinese authorities asked Washington to reverse its decision, saying the closure of the diplomatic office was “breaking the bridge of friendship.”
In response, China has now ordered the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu, also within 72 hours.
The United States has an embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Hong Kong.
The Chinese consulate in Houston is one of five in the United States, not counting the embassy in Washington DC.
On Tuesday, hours before the Trump administration issued its order to vacate the building, consulate employees were seen lighting fires in a courtyard of the Houston building, prompting police and fire officials to rush to the area.
Fire crews were unable to access the complex as documents were seen burning.
Sources told NBC on Wednesday that the consulate was known as a Chinese spy center.
Multiple US officials told the network that the Chinese government has long used the Houston consulate to steal valuable medical research, and that it was involved in attempts to infiltrate the oil and natural gas industries.
They said the consulate is well fortified, hardened to avoid American surveillance, and was a high-tech communications center to coordinate and execute various espionage operations.
Fire crews who arrived at the scene were told that they could not enter to put out the flames.
Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia and a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Katy Tur of NBC News that he would not discuss the specific intelligence behind Wednesday’s closure.
“But I can tell you that for the past two years, I and other members of the intelligence committee have held classified briefings with business and academic leaders about the Chinese Communist Party’s concerted efforts to steal our intellectual property, to steal it from companies, to steal it from universities, be on better guard, ” he said.
Warner suggested that the action was fueled by the FBI and its intelligence.
The State Department said China was running “massive operations of illegal espionage and influence.”
David R. Stilwell, who oversees East Asia and Pacific policy at the State Department, told the New York Times that the Houston consulate had a history of engaging in “subversive behavior.”
China has five consulates in the United States. The one from Houston, in the photo, closed on Friday
He said the consulate was the epicenter of investigative theft in the United States.
For example, Stilwell said, he said the Consul General, the top Chinese official there, and two other diplomats were recently captured using a fake ID to escort Chinese travelers to the gate area of a charter flight from George Bush Intercontinental Airport. .
Stilwell said that some of China’s scientific theft attempts in the United States had accelerated in the past six months and could be related to efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine, although he again presented no evidence.
Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, who has been a leader in aggressively pushing hard-line policies on China, said at a press conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday that the Trump administration was “setting clear expectations for how the Chinese Communist Party is doing. ” to behave. ‘
He warned that the United States “would take steps” to protect its interests.
Moving vans were photographed outside the consulate in Houston on Wednesday.
Much of the interest in Houston has focused on the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
In April 2019, three out of five scientists identified by federal authorities as involved in efforts to steal the American investigation on behalf of China at MD Anderson were expelled by the institution.
A fourth scientist resigned before the conclusion of the investigation, and the fifth was disciplined by the center.
Trump said during a press conference Wednesday night that “it is always possible” for his administration to shut down more Chinese missions.
The closure of the consulate marks a new collapse in relations between the two largest economies in the world, and it is a significant change since just six months ago, when the countries signed a trade agreement and Trump boasted that the relationship between the United States and China “could be the best it has been.” in a long, long time.
Trump said six months ago that the relationship with China was excellent.
Relations between Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping are now at a low level.
Now, in addition to closing the consulate, the United States is also considering banning Chinese-owned mobile apps, such as Tik Tok, removing Chinese technology from the power grid, and sanctioning Communist Party officials for the internment of Muslims and a law on security that effectively ends Hong Kong’s independent legal status.
Trump also cut off additional trade talks and threatened to penalize China because he said they “could have stopped” the pandemic.
Hua Chunying, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, described the reasons given by the United States for closing the consulate as “incredibly ridiculous.”
He urged the United States to reverse its “wrong decision,” or China “would react with firm countermeasures.”
“While Chinese diplomats promote mutual understanding and friendship, the United States embassy in China publicly attacks China’s political system,” he said.
“As a result of the stains and hatred fueled by the United States government, the Chinese embassy has received death and bomb threats.”
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