The State Department ordered closed China’s Houston consulate in response to Beijing’s use of that consulate for highly aggressive espionage efforts against U.S. intellectual property and American citizens of Chinese ancestry.

The key concern was China’s Ministry of State Security’s use of the Houston consulate as a key operations station for south-central and West Coast espionage operations. As I understand it, the Houston station is connected to the indictment on Tuesday of two MSS officers for cyberespionage against American intellectual property targets and coronavirus vaccine research. The Houston station was very likely used as a targeting center to gather intelligence for cyberattack teams on the Chinese mainland.