Republicans celebrate 2020 closure of Houston’s Chinese consulate

It is unlikely the Chinese consulate in Houston will re-open anytime soon, a top GOP leader in Congress said on Thursday. Two years after the Donald Trump administration closed the office as accusations of espionage surfaced, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul said he has a hard time seeing how the U.S. could allow the facility to re-open again. “I think it would be very difficult,” said McCaul, who is positioned to become the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee if Republicans regain the majority in the November mid-term elections. “I just think that the threat that they posed there would make it very hard to do.”

McCaul’s comments came as he and his GOP colleagues in Congress, including U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., gathered in Houston to praise the Trump administration for shutting down the Chinese consulate and calling out the Chinese government for their spying and stealing of trade secrets and technology from organizations including The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, NASA, and the energy sector. “The Trump administration stood up and had the guts to call it exactly what it was,” McCarthy said during an afternoon press conference at the Harris County Republican Party headquarters. In July 2020, the consulate on 3417 Montrose Blvd was ordered to close, resulting in a hasty evacuation by Chinese officials, some of whom were spotted setting fire to documents in the courtyard so they would not end up in the hands of U.S. officials. McCaul said the Houston consulate served as an espionage hub and was a den of spies.