TX: ChiComs hold a BBQ in Houston

[philip964]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/loca ... n-houston/

[Rafe]

And the Trump administration almost immediately ordered the consulate closed.

There was obviously some shady stuff goin' on. Consulate staff don't start mass bin-burning of documents unless they're trying to quickly destroy evidence.

[Soccerdad1995]

And the Trump administration almost immediately ordered the consulate closed.

There was obviously some shady stuff goin' on. Consulate staff don't start mass bin-burning of documents unless they're trying to quickly destroy evidence.

Do we know why the consulate was ordered to be closed? Is it just Houston, or all Chinese consulates?

The burning makes sense if they are being forced to close their consulate suddenly.

[srothstein]

I don't know why Houston was chosen, though the burning of documents provides a strong hint, but it was the only consulate Trump said had to go. He closed it in retaliation for Chinese hacking of companies trying to research corona virus vaccines.

As far as I can see, their trying to steal that information has only one of two possible reasons:

1. They are so far outclassed and have a much bigger problem in their country than they have admitted that they need all the help they can get.
or
2. That the release really was a targeted attack using biological warfare and they want the information to prepare another attack. Understanding how we fight this one would give them a hand up in designing a more successful weapon next time.

And I am not sure that these are mutually exclusive propositions. I don't think the US government would do something that would kill large number of their own citizens in an attempt to attack an enemy but I do not think the Chinese government has the same respect for their own citizens. I guess I should point out that my faith in our government is based on large numbers. They have demonstrated a willingness to risk smaller numbers of citizens for "the greater good".

[03Lightningrocks]

I don't think destroying documents is anything unusual when being forced to leave a consulate. We do the exact same thing when we are forced to leave any of our consulates overseas. We all know the Chinese are up to no good. We already have evidence of that.

[G.A. Heath]

The documents they are destroying could be anything from next week's cafeteria menu or where the staff likes to order takeout from to classified communications materials or documents relating to espionage. We do the same thing when we are forced to leave a diplomatic facility in another country. The goal is to leave absolutely nothing behind so there is nothing that the host country can use against you in any way.

[Rafe]

To be clear, the chronology was fire reported and Houston FD denied entrance to the consulate on Tuesday night. It wasn't until Wednesday at around noon that the news broke the U.S. had ordered the consulate closed. And late Wednesday before we learned that that Trump had issued the order Tuesday, before the fire and first-responder incident Tuesday night.

[03Lightningrocks]

To be clear, the chronology was fire reported and Houston FD denied entrance to the consulate on Tuesday night. It wasn't until Wednesday at around noon that the news broke the U.S. had ordered the consulate closed. And late Wednesday before we learned that that Trump had issued the order Tuesday, before the fire and first-responder incident Tuesday night.

Again, that matters not. They knew about it days before we were told by the media.

[DevilDawg]

The documents as mentioned are just standard practice for departure of consulate by any country. I think the reason the Houston consulate was chosen has to due more with the TX Medical Center and research being done. Also note that there is a fugitive Chinese scientist supposedly hiding in their consulate in San Francisco which is a major airline routing hub US/CN.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/wor ... 492095002/

[Soccerdad1995]

It will be interesting to see the response from the CCP. Hopefully they keep it consistent and just close one of our consulates over there, as opposed to escalating things. This would be a particularly bad time to have anything resembling an active shooting war, not that there is ever a good time for that.

[03Lightningrocks]

It is a concerning situation. God help us all if some kind of armed conflict starts up with China. I would like to believe both sides know it would be mutually destructive.

[Rafe]

To be clear, the chronology was fire reported and Houston FD denied entrance to the consulate on Tuesday night. It wasn't until Wednesday at around noon that the news broke the U.S. had ordered the consulate closed. And late Wednesday before we learned that that Trump had issued the order Tuesday, before the fire and first-responder incident Tuesday night.

Again, that matters not. They knew about it days before we were told by the media.

It matters if you live in Houston, saw massive video coverage of the Tuesday night "fire" on every local newscast, and mentioned it here. My point is that, yep, SOP if you're pulling a consulate or embassy. But my bet is everyone chiming in who is not in Houston learned about the fire and large first-responder reaction sometime Wednesday afternoon either simultaneous with or after they learned of the order to close. If you live in Houston, all you knew Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was the fire. In fact, when first reported and televised Tuesday night, it wasn't clear that it was only bin-burning; there was significant smoke and the first videos were ground-level and helicopter; the clearer visuals of bin-burning were taken with a cell phone by someone in an adjacent building, sent into news stations after the 10:00 p.m. reports aired, and included in later reports.

The armchair-quarterbacking posts telling us that we should all know about embassy-closure records destruction didn't start here until 31 hours after the fire and local news coverage of it, and over 12 hours after the announcement from Washington of the closure.

[philip964]

Supposedly a big spy place. Spying on Med Center, Nasa and Oil Industry. Interesting the burning, I guess shredding is out after Iran put together all the shredded strips after they invaded our Embassy.

Surprised there was not some sort of big fireplace, rather than having barrels on fire. BTW why did they have barrels? Did they have them on site already or was someone sent out to buy barrels. Not even sure where you would buy a barrel. Haven't seen them at Home Depot. If they had them on site, why? In case they needed to ship someone home?

[03Lightningrocks]

To be clear, the chronology was fire reported and Houston FD denied entrance to the consulate on Tuesday night. It wasn't until Wednesday at around noon that the news broke the U.S. had ordered the consulate closed. And late Wednesday before we learned that that Trump had issued the order Tuesday, before the fire and first-responder incident Tuesday night.

Again, that matters not. They knew about it days before we were told by the media.

It matters if you live in Houston, saw massive video coverage of the Tuesday night "fire" on every local newscast, and mentioned it here. My point is that, yep, SOP if you're pulling a consulate or embassy. But my bet is everyone chiming in who is not in Houston learned about the fire and large first-responder reaction sometime Wednesday afternoon either simultaneous with or after they learned of the order to close. If you live in Houston, all you knew Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was the fire. In fact, when first reported and televised Tuesday night, it wasn't clear that it was only bin-burning; there was significant smoke and the first videos were ground-level and helicopter; the clearer visuals of bin-burning were taken with a cell phone by someone in an adjacent building, sent into news stations after the 10:00 p.m. reports aired, and included in later reports.

The armchair-quarterbacking posts telling us that we should all know about embassy-closure records destruction didn't start here until 31 hours after the fire and local news coverage of it, and over 12 hours after the announcement from Washington of the closure.

I misunderstood what you were getting at. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

[philip964]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/nati ... ate-in-sf/

US college researcher lied on her Visa application about being in the Chinese military. No holed up in the Consulate in San Fransisco. Wonder if any holed up in Houston's consulate?