China vows to retaliate after U.S. orders closure of its consulate in Houston

Beijing vowed to retaliate against the order, calling it "an unprecedented escalation" in the broader war 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 on Wednesday.

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

"The United States will not tolerate the PRC'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, using the abbreviation for China's official name, the People's Republic of China.

"President Trump insists on fairness and reciprocity in U.S.-China relations," she continued.

In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry responded angrily to the order. The U.S. government "abruptly informed" China on Tuesday that it had to immediately close its consulate in Houston, Wang told reporters.

The order came amid American attacks on China's political system, its harassment of Chinese diplomats and its intimidation of Chinese students, Wang said, vowing retaliation.

"This political provocation has been unilaterally initiated by the U.S. side in violation of international law and basic norms guiding international relations," he said.

"China strongly condemns this outrageous and unjustified move to sabotage China-U.S. relations. The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to immediately retract this wrong decision."

In addition to its embassy in Beijing, the United States has consulates in Shenyang, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

Analysts expect the Chinese government to respond by ordering one of them closed. Beijing was particularly incensed that the United States evacuated its consulate in Wuhan in January, as the virus began spreading rapidly across the city.

It has still not reopened, and the embassy and other consulates are operating with skeleton staff, according to American officials.

The confirmation of the order came after Houston NBC affiliate KPRC2 aired video showing people in the courtyard of the consulate apparently burning documents after 8 p.m. on Tuesday night local time.

Police and fire officials went to the scene after calls from neighbors, but did not enter the building, the television station reported.

Witnesses in nearby apartment buildings told police that people were burning paper in what appeared to be trash cans, a police official told the Houston Chronicle. The consulate staff had been told they would be evicted from the building at 4 p.m. Friday, the paper quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"This is a crazy move," Hu Xijin, the firebrand editor of the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times wrote on Twitter. Hu, who often shares information on Twitter that has not been officially announced, revealed the 72 hour time frame.

The United States and China have been locked in a tit-for-tat battle for supremacy that began at the start of the Trump administration, centered on trade and technology. Both sides have this year expelled journalists and have been slapping sanctions on each others' officials.

But the war has become much more serious with Trump's efforts to blame the Chinese government for the coronavirus that emerged from Wuhan at the end of last year and retaliatory actions over journalists in the two countries.

Analysts on both sides say that bilateral relations are at their worst since before 1979, when the United States formally recognized the People's Republic of China.

The Houston consulate was officially opened that same year, the first in the United States outside the embassy in Washington, D.C. It is situated in an area with a large Chinese community, and handles consular matters for eight states: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, plus Puerto Rico.

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The Washington Post's John Hudson in Copenhagen and Liu Yang and Lyric Li in Beijing contributed to this report.