https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/polit...hnk/index.html
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the consulate was directed to close "in order to protect American intellectual property and Americans' private information."
Late Tuesday evening local time, police in Houston said they responded to reports of smoke in the courtyard outside the consulate, located on Montrose Boulevard, in the city's Midtown area.
Local media shared video of what appeared to be officials inside the compound burning documents.
In a statement posted on its official social media, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the order to close the consulate was a "political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side, which seriously violates international law, basic norms governing international relations and the bilateral consular agreement between China and the US."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53497193
This is clearly a significant development in the diplomatic sparring between Washington and Beijing.
The closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston comes soon after news emerged of the unsealing of a US indictment against two men accused of spying on US vaccine development on behalf of China's security services. It is not clear if the two episodes are linked. But it is clear that the Trump administration is determined to step up its very public calling out of Beijing.
In the midst of a presidential re-election campaign and with the US economy and society battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Trump has determined that there is political advantage in playing the China card.
It is hard to see how Beijing can avoid some equivalent response. The danger now is of a spiralling tit-for-tat battle, driven in part by US domestic considerations, which can only make the complex and developing tensions between the US and China even worse.