US agents enter Chinese consulate compound in Houston after deadline for closure passes

[spanone]

Washington (CNN) - US federal agents and local law enforcement entered the Chinese consulate compound in Houston Friday afternoon following Tuesday's order to close the diplomatic facility after US officials alleged it was part of a larger Chinese espionage effort using diplomatic facilities around the US.

A series of black SUVs, trucks, two white vans and a locksmith's van entered the property as a crowd of observers and news cameras observed from the edge of the diplomatic compound.

US officials speaking to reporters Friday said the consulate had been implicated in a fraud investigation at a Texas research institution and that Chinese consulate officials, "were directly involved in communications with researchers and guided them on what information to collect."

The activities of consulate officials in Houston "are a microcosm, we believe, of a broader network of individuals in more than 25 cities that network is supported through the consulates here," a US Justice Department official said Friday. "Consulates have been giving individuals in that network guidance on how to evade [and] obstruct our investigation. And you can infer from that the ability to task that [a] network of associates nationwide."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/us-agents-houston-chinese-consulate/index.html

[crickets]

1. K&R for visibility.

[edhopper]

2. Consulates are foreign territory

We just allowed China to go into any of ours in their country.

[Sgent]

3. We gave them the treaty obligated

72 hours notice. Consulates are afforded less protection than Embassy's, but I'm not sure what the particulars are.