Chinese Consulate-General, Houston


The Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China in Houston is a dormant diplomatic mission of China, headquartered at 3417 Montrose Boulevard in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas. It served eight states in the Southern United States: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, in addition to Puerto Rico. This diplomatic mission was established in 1937 by the Republic of China government.
Opened in 1979 by the People's Republic of China, it was the first Chinese consulate general to be established in the United States. It was closed on July 24, 2020, the last consul general was Cai Wei, who held the post since 2019.
In addition to the main consulate building it also maintained an education office in Midtown.

History

Prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, a Chinese consulate was already present in Houston. The Republic of China, as of 1937, was represented by a vice-consul. The ROC consulate still exists unofficially today as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston.
The current PRC consulate was established in 1979 as the first PRC consulate in the United States, after the normalization of China–United States relations. 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 China would open two consulates in Houston and San Francisco. The Houston consulate-general was officially opened on November 20, 1979.

2020 closure

On July 21, 2020, the United States government ordered the consulate in Houston to be closed within 72 hours. 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", and that the State Department "have directed the closure of PRC Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and American's private information." In immediate reaction to the news of the closure, stock indexes in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen dropped.
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. Local police and fire departments received reports of the fires at around 8 pm local time, and as first responders arrived at the consulate, they were denied entry. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin issued a statement in response requesting the U.S. to reverse the closure, threatening reciprocal actions otherwise. On July 24, the U.S. Consulate-General in Chengdu was ordered to close. The White House had urged China earlier on that day to not engage in "tit-for-tat retaliation."
On July 24, the United States officials entered the former consulate and took over it.

List of consuls general