China says US told it to shut its Houston consulate

China said on Wednesday (July 22) the United States had abruptly told it to close its consulate in the city of Houston, a move that Beijing said it strongly condemns, threatening retaliation.

The United States gave the Chinese side a deadline of three days to close the mission in the Texas city, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

"The unilateral closure of China's Consulate General in Houston within a short period of time is an unprecedented escalation of its recent actions against China," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said during a regular news briefing.

Wang added that the consulate was operating normally but did not respond to questions about U.S. media reports in Houston on Tuesday (July 21) night that documents were being burned in a courtyard at the consulate.

Houston police told FOX 26 that staff there were burning documents because they are being evicted from the building on Friday (July 24) afternoon.

Relations between the United States and China have deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the beginning of the year.