China slams U.S. for ordering abrupt closure of Houston consulate, vows retaliation

China's foreign ministry said Wednesday that the Trump administration had ordered it to close its consulate in Houston for reasons neither Beijing nor Washington specified. The abrupt demand from Washington, delivered Tuesday, is "a political provocation unilaterally launched by the U.S," and "China urges the U.S. to immediately rescind its erroneous decision, otherwise China will undertake legitimate and necessary responses," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing in Beijing. The editor of the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times said the consulate was given just 72 hours to evacuate.

Houston fire trucks had been called to the consulate Tuesday night by residents concerned about fires in the courtyard of the Chinese diplomatic outpost, but the fire department was denied entry to the building. Footage from neighbors appears to show consulate employees burning papers.

The State Department did not provide any specific rationale for the unusual and escalatory move, but spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the move was "to protect American intellectual property." The U.S. will not tolerate Beijing's "violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated the PRC's unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behavior," she said in a statement. "President Trump insists on fairness and reciprocity in U.S.-China relations."

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Wang said the U.S. has been harassing Chinese diplomats over the past year and had opened Chinese diplomatic pouches and removed items, which would be a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, ratified by both China and the U.S.