A van full of federal agents with the U.S. State Department reportedly raided the Chinese consulate in Houston just over an hour after Chinese officials fled the premises, according to Houston Public Media.
The move comes three days after the Trump administration demanded the Chinese government leave the building, claiming the site was being used to spy on the Texas A&M medical system and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Chinese officials called the claim “malicious slander.”
Earlier Friday, Chinese researcher Tang Juan was arrested on a visa fraud charge after U.S. officials found her hiding out in the San Francisco consulate on Thursday. An official from the Justice Department called Juan “a fugitive from justice until last night.”
On Wednesday, the U.S government shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information.”
The Chinese Communist Party retaliated on Friday by ordering U.S. citizens to leave their consulate in Chengdu, China.
“The United States will not tolerate (China’s) violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we have not tolerated (its) unfair trade practices, theft of American jobs, and other egregious behavior,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
via newsmax