China says it will be forced to respond to Houston consulate closure

BEIJING — China warned on Thursday it will be forced to respond after the United States ordered the shutdown of its Houston consulate, a move the Chinese Foreign Ministry said had “severely harmed” relations. Washington gave China 72 hours to close the consulate “to protect American intellectual property and Americans’ private information,” marking a dramatic escalation of tension between the world’s two biggest economies. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described the Houston consulate on Twitter as the “central node of the...