Opened in 1979 by the People's Republic of China, it was the first Chinese consulate general to be established in the United States. On July 24, 2020, the consulate was ordered to close by the United States government.[2]
In addition to the main consulate building, it also maintained an education office in Midtown.[3]
The current PRC consulate was established in 1979 as the first PRC consulate in the United States, after Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States and the normalization of China–United States relations.[5] In an agreement between U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Vice Premier Bo Yibo, China agreed to accept two U.S. consulates in Guangzhou and Shanghai, while mainland China would open two consulates in Houston and San Francisco.[6] The Houston consulate-general was officially opened on November 20, 1979.[7]
In April 1981, the consulate became the center of a diplomatic incident between mainland China and the United States as Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin was held in the consulate for 21 hours with his newly wed American wife. Li had intended to defect to the U.S., and in the ensuing incident FBI agents surrounded the consulate with a U.S. delegation led by then Vice President George H. W. Bush successfully negotiating for Li's release.[8][9]
2020 closure
On July 21, 2020, the United States government ordered the consulate in Houston to be closed within 72 hours.[2] The U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus released a statement saying that "The United States will not tolerate the PRC's violations of our sovereignty and intimidation of our people",[10] and that the State Department "have directed the closure of PRC Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property [from Chinese theft] and American's private information".[11] The Houston consulate was accused of being part of a general Chinese espionage effort in the United States,[12] specifically stealing data on medical research and the oil and gas sector.[13][14] In May 2020, an independent research report from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology found that, "Before its closure in the summer of 2020, the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas was a major hub in China’s global S&T information gathering operation. From January 2015 to July 2020, Houston Consulate staff identified more S&T projects than any other PRC diplomatic post in the world."[15] The consulate was also accused of harassing the families of Chinese dissidents while trying to coerce them to return to mainland China.[16]
In immediate reaction to the news of the closure, stock indices in Hong Kong, in Shanghai, and in Shenzhen dropped.[17] Within the hours after the announcement, videos emerged on Houston's locally broadcast KPRC-TV showing documents being burned in barrels in the courtyard of the consulate.[11] Local police and fire departments received reports of the fires at around 8 pm local time,[18] and as first responders arrived at the consulate, they were denied entry.[11] Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin issued a statement in response requesting the U.S. to reverse the closure, threatening reciprocal actions (e.g. closing an American consulate in China) otherwise.
On July 24, United States officials entered the former consulate and took over the building.[19][20] In retaliation, the Chinese government ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in Chengdu, in response to the U.S. shutting down the Houston consulate.[21]
^Fedasiuk, Ryan; Weinstein, Emily; Puglisi, Anna (May 2021). "China's Foreign Technology Wish List". Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
