Man Crashes Car Into Chinese Consulate in San Francisco

A man crashed a car into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday before being shot by arriving police, later dying at the hospital, authorities said.

Armed officers entered the consulate and fired at the unnamed suspect after attempts to make contact, said Sgt. Kathryn Winters of the San Francisco Police Department. It was unclear how many shots were fired or whether the suspect was armed. No other injuries were reported inside the building.

Parts of the 3 p.m. incident were caught on video, one of which showed people running out of the consulate as a blue sedan remained stopped inside the lobby. The eyewitness who filmed the aftermath told local media that the man asked for the Chinese Communist Party.

"Then the man came out of the car. He was like bleeding, long hair, Asian look. And he was saying something. One thing I heard clearly was: 'Where is the f*****g CCP?'" the witness named Sergii told ABC 7.

Sergii posted a video of the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter.

San Francisco authorities were coordinating the investigation with the U.S. State Department and the Chinese consulate, but the police weren't able to comment on possible motives.

"I wish I could give you more, but this is a very complex investigation," said Winters.

China's consulate condemned the incident as a "violent attack," which posed "a serious threat to the lives and safety of staff and members of the public on site." Property inside the building was also damaged, the consulate said in Monday's statement, without going into details.

It said a diplomatic complaint was lodged with the U.S. government, demanding immediate action by local authorities.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, repeated the statement at a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday and invoked the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the 1963 treaty that governs state-to-state relations.

"We strongly urge the United States to launch a swift investigation and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese diplomatic missions and personnel in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations," he said.

San Francisco will host the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November, which the White House is encouraging Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend. A potential meeting there between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden would be their first since talks on the margins of the G20 summit in Indonesia almost one year ago.

Beijing has yet to confirm the Chinese president's travel to San Francisco—home to large groups of Chinese diaspora—but security doubtless will be of paramount importance.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco was previously targeted in 2014 when a man tried to start a fire at the entrance of the building. The Chinese consulate in Los Angeles was targeted in 2017 in a separate shooting incident.

China's embassy in Washington and consulate in San Francisco didn't respond to separate requests for comment before publication.