The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced in a statement Monday that the Chengdu consulate closed at 10 a.m. “The relevant Chinese authorities entered through the main entrance and took over,” the ministry said in the statement released on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Over the weekend, hundreds of people had gathered outside the United States Consulate in the southwestern city of 16.5 million people, taking selfies and waving Chinese flags. On Saturday, the US insignia were removed, while on Sunday extraction work began on a plaque in front of the embassy and containers were loaded onto trucks, as staff prepared for the consulate’s closure.
The Chinese government had given the Americans the same 72-hour window to close their mission in Chengdu that Beijing had been allowed in Houston, where last Tuesday Washington told China to “cease all operations and events.” .
The Chinese Foreign Ministry called that move an “unprecedented escalation” of ongoing tensions between the two countries.
“The current situation between China and the United States is something that China does not want to see, and the responsibility falls entirely on the United States,” the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.
“As President Trump has made very clear, we need a strategy that protects the American economy and, in fact, our way of life. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny,” said Pompeo.
“The truth is that our policies, and those of other free nations, resurrected China’s bankrupt economy, only to see Beijing bite the international hands that fed it. We open our arms to Chinese citizens, just to see the Communist Party Chinese”. exploit our free and open society. “
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