Staff at the U.S. consulate in Chengdu have been making final efforts to clean up the facility ahead of Beijing’s closed Monday as relations with Washington continue to worsen.
Security remained tight outside the facility on Sunday, as bystanders shared space with dozens of uniformed and civilian-clad police officers outside the entrance.
The closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and the U.S. consulate in Chengdu are part of an escalation in tensions between the world’s two largest economies. China-US relations are at their worst in decades, with disputes over trade and technology, the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and its crackdown on Hong Kong.
Chengdu police asked people to move out as crowds formed outside the consulate, as viewers snapped photos and videos. The street was closed to traffic, except for consular and police vehicles.
China on Friday ordered the closure of the Chengdu consulate in the southwestern Sichuan province. According to the editor of a tabloid state-run newspaper, the evacuation deadline is 10 am local time on Monday.
In Houston on Friday, a group of men accompanied by a US state department official were seen forcing a door open at the Chinese consulate, shortly after the shutdown order went into effect for a facility that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described it as “a hub for espionage and theft of intellectual property.”
In Chengdu, a bus that had been seen at the facilities of the United States Consulate on Saturday departed on Sunday morning. It was unclear who or what was on board. Since Friday, consulate staff have been seen coming and going, including at least one with a suitcase. Moving vans came and went on Saturday and Sunday.
“China’s response was reciprocal,” said a 63-year-old man outside the consulate who only gave his last name, Yang. The situation was “quite regrettable,” he added.
In the Chengdu police account on the Chinese social networking site Weibo, some asked authorities to be lenient on a man who lit fireworks outside the consulate on Friday.
“I think our country is so powerful, so it has the capacity to manage it properly,” said a 25-year-old financial worker who only gave her last name, Zhao, when she passed through the consulate.
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