Washington took the path of a diplomatic war with Beijing. As said on Wednesday the U.S. state Department, the U.S. government demanded that China close the Embassy in Houston (Texas). The reason, as reported in the Ministry, was the need to “protect intellectual property and personal data of Americans”. In China’s foreign Ministry called the move “unprecedented escalation” of the relationship and said that in response can close the US Consulate in Wuhan. However, it seems that this step is ready to go and the Americans.”Outrageous conduct”According to Chinese media, the us government was given 72 hours to close the Consulate in Houston and reported it to Beijing yesterday. On Wednesday morning Moscow time in Twitter there was a video in which the employees of the Embassy were burned in the backyard in trash cans paper (presumably, the documents). Soon the accident was reported to Houston police. “It’s not like it was a sudden fire, and access to the building, we have not received,— said the head of the fire service Houston Sam Pena.— Stand and observe.”Official confirmation of the decision of the US authorities was received later on Wednesday. “We sent a request to close the Consulate General of China in Houston in order to protect American intellectual property and personal data of Americans,”— said the official representative of US state Department Morgan Ortagus. However, according to the statement, this was not the only reason. Mrs. Ortagus also added: “We are not going to tolerate a violation of China to our sovereignty and intimidation of our people, just as we do not put up with unfair trade practices of China, stealing American jobs and other egregious behavior.”In response to the question, what signal are sending US, covering the Chinese Consulate, adviser to the head of the White house, Kellyann Conway said: “I think the President has made it clear that he was unhappy with China, are dissatisfied with the fact that the Chinese virus has spread in this country and around the world, and China received very little information, honesty and transparency.””We still don’t get information from China. We still don’t know the number of cases, number of deaths and so on,” she added.The Chinese foreign Ministry this step is called “outrageous and unjustified”, claiming a violation of international law. The official representative the Ministry of foreign Affairs of China Wang Wenbin called on the us authorities to reconsider its decision, because Beijing would “respond with resolute countermeasures”, in particular, to close the American Consulate in Wuhan.This evening the Agency AP, citing an unnamed representative of the presidential administration, trump said the us authorities themselves decided not to resume work�� Consulate in Wuhan, which was suspended in January amid the spread of the novel coronavirus. According to the source, this step is explained by Washington’s desire to prevent possible retaliatory measures from the Chinese government.”Ignominious club of Nations”which specific facts of theft of intellectual property there is a speech, U.S. authorities on Wednesday did not elaborate. On Tuesday, however, on the website of the Ministry of justice has information that two Chinese citizens charged with hacking into the computer systems of hundreds of organizations, including the government. It could be a cause for more drastic measures against China by the us government. The statement noted: cyber attacks were “aimed at intellectual property and confidential business information, including research COVID-19”. This indicates that sometimes the hackers did it for their own benefit, but in many cases — on behalf of the Chinese security services or the government.From the statement it follows that the two Chinese nationals — are former students of electrical engineering Whether Xiaoyu and Dong Jiari. In January, they followed an unnamed Massachusetts biotech firm, which explores possible ways to treat COVID-19, and hacked the company’s resources in Maryland, after its management announced the research to develop a vaccine. However, they spied not only for American companies that develop high-tech products. In the list of the countries whose firms were attacked, were Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK. According to the indictment, Chinese hackers were spying on these companies for over ten years.Not done in this statement, and without mentioning some other countries, which, in the opinion of the American authorities, are involved in cyber espionage. “Now China, along with Russia, Iran and North Korea, took its place in this shameful club of Nations which provide safe haven for cybercriminals,” notes on the website of the Ministry of justice.We will remind that last week the US, UK and Canada also accused Russian hackers trying to steal data about vaccine research COVID-19. According to them, this is the same group of hackers, who was involved in hacking accounts email Democrats during the presidential election in the United States in 2016.Anti-Chinese coalition one of the closure of the Chinese Consulate in the US, it seems, is not going to stop. On Wednesday, us Senator, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on foreign relations James rich stated that he intends to publish a new draft law aimed at resolving the “problem issuesowls” in relations between Beijing and Washington (in particular, concerning the theft of intellectual property). He told about it in interview to the newspaper Financial Times. So, in the case of adoption of the initiative, the U.S. government must submit to Congress a report with a list of Chinese companies that pose a threat to national security or the US economy. In addition, the expected change in competition law: a new amendment to the relevant law allows American companies in a simplified manner to appeal against the anticompetitive actions of Chinese state-owned enterprises.To fight against China alone in the United States clearly did not intend. On Tuesday, the US Secretary of state Mike Pompeo at a press conference with the Minister of foreign Affairs of great Britain Dominique Raab announced the intention to establish the international anti-China coalition. “We can create a coalition that will understand this (outbound from Beijing.— “B”) threat and collective efforts to convince the Communist party of China that such behavior is not in the interests of this country,” he said.Marina Kovalenko
