Chinese consulate closure in Houston: it’s really about ratcheting up a nativist national security panic

It’s meant to ratchet up fear and further tenderize our frail and confused minds.

The latest news from the frontlines of Our Patriotic War Against China: Mike Pompeo is forcing China to close its consulate in Houston. The pretext is the country’s supposed hacking of America’s precious COVID vaccine data, which is part of a bullshit spy-fed propaganda campaign that I wrote about last week.

The State Department said in a statement that the closure was in response to repeated Chinese violations of American sovereignty, including “massive illegal spying and influence operations.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a news conference on Wednesday in Copenhagen, Denmark, that Chinese citizens stealing intellectual property in the United States had been a persistent problem. “We are setting out clear expectations as to how the Chinese Communist Party is going to behave,” he said. “And when they don’t, we are going to take actions that protect the American people, protect our security, our national security, and also protect our economy and jobs.”

Obviously the exact pretext doesn’t really matter. The only thing that America knows how to do these days is to escalate conflict. With this closure, our imperial managers are hoping and praying that China retaliates in some way so that they can justify further escalation and conflict.

And this isn’t just a Donald Trump thing. This is a bipartisan thing.

Barack Obama — and then Trump — pulled the same stunt with Russia in 2016 and 2017: expelling diplomats, closing down suburban embassy facilities, and finally shutting down the Russian consulate in San Francisco.

What did all this achieve? Did it “punish” Russia? Did it “teach” Putin a lesson? Nah. But it did cause a similar reaction from Russia, and it ramped up tensions. It also carried out an important domestic propaganda function by keeping alive a xenophobic national security panic — a campaign that has sought to place a weaker, faraway country at the center of America’s domestic political problems.

In that sense, this Chinese consulate closure is really directed at the American people. It’s meant to ratchet up people’s fears and to further tenderize our frail and confused and xenophobic minds.

As far as these claims of cyber attacks? Hacking and espionage happens. Everyone does it. It’s a normal part of life.

You have to remember that America runs the biggest cyber meddling and cyber attack operation in the business. And it’s not like it’s ready to give that racket up any time soon. How do we know this? Well, our government has repeatedly refused to sign cyber war treaties with Russia and China — despite multiple attempts by both of these countries to bring America to the negotiating table.

Yasha Levine @yashalevine

Another year another rejection. This marks the third time that the US has rejected working towards a cyber attack treaty with Russia. This time it had to do with agreeing to prevent "cyberattacks on critical infrastructure." cfr.org/blog/russia-wa…

Cyber ops have been very good to America. As I’ve shown in Surveillance Valley, America dominates the world’s telecommunication infrastructure. It even funds the tools that are supposed to protect people from itself. Why would American want to stop a good thing?

—Yasha Levine

PS: I happened to be in San Francisco when Trump’s Rex Tillerson (remember him?) closed down the consulate in 2017. Here’s what I wrote at the time:

Visiting my parents this week, so I swung by the Russian consulate in San Francisco around 6pm on Friday, a day after its surprise closure was announced by Rex Tillerson. I saw a depressing scene. A few stragglers milling around the entrance while a bunch of consulate employees loaded boxes into a consulate van. They were sullen and clearly tired after moving boxes all day and having reporters jam cameras in their faces. They looked at anyone who happened to walk by with suspicion and loathing, expecting to be accosted.

Surprisingly, most of the people there were not happy with the closure. Even the goofy, misinformed activist holding a "Russia — Stop Killing Gay Chechens" sign said he did not support the closures ordered by Trump. "A bad development" is what I think he called it. The only guy grinning from ear to ear was a student reporter from a paper run out of the American River College in Sacramento. He seemed happy and excited as a kid, delighted that he was finally getting a glimpse into some heavy spycraft action. "This is not a just consulate," he told me. "It's a spying station. They have antennas on the roof!" He babbled on about RT and Russian propaganda, then pointed to the sky: "Look, it's a FBI plane circling overhead. It's been doing that all day! They're watching the Russians pack up their spy gear." I guess this was the kind of action he drove all the way down from Sacramento for!

As for me? I just felt deflated and depressed. We're headed into some dark times, and the liberal idiots just can’t stop grinning.

—Yasha Levine • September 1, 2017