The staff of the United States consulate in Chengdu is making final efforts to clean up the facilities as security remains tight in the face of Beijing’s closed Monday as relations between China and the United States continue to worsen.
Three moving trucks entered the U.S. consulate.viewers shared the sidewalk space with dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police officers on a tree-lined street on a hot Sunday.
The Sichuan province capital, along with Houston in Texas, has become the focus of international politics, as China and the United States exchanged orders eye for eye last week to close consulates at the two cities of the heart.
The closings have intensified a sharp deterioration in ties between the world’s two largest economies, which were already the worst in decades amid disputes over trade and technology, the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s territorial claims in the South China and its repression of Hong Kong.
Police asked people to move out when crowds formed outside the consulate as viewers snapped photos and videos of what they hoped was the last time they saw the complex in the hands of the U.S.
The street was closed to traffic, except for consular or police vehicles that the police allowed to pass.
A woman holds a Chinese flag across the street from the American consulate in Chengdu [Thomas Peter/Reuters]
China on Friday ordered the closure of the Chengdu consulate in the southwestern Sichuan province. That means an evacuation deadline of 10 am (02:00 GMT) on Monday, according to the editor of a state tabloid.
Beijing’s move was in retaliation for the United States’ order to close the Chinese consulate in Houston, alleging that the site contained spies who attempted to steal data from facilities in Texas, including the Texas A&M medical system and the MD Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas in the city. .
China said the allegations were “malicious slander”.
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 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called it “a center for espionage and theft of intellectual property. “
In Chengdu, a coach who had been on the premises of the United States Consulate left on Sunday morning. It was unclear who or what was inside.
“China’s response was reciprocal,” said a 63-year-old local resident who gave only his last name, Yang, who called the situation “quite regrettable.”
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