On Monday morning, the American consulate in the Chinese city (Chengdu) officially shut down due to the severe relations between the United States and China.
The U.S. waving flag over the building was lowered, reported by Chinese state-run media known as CCTV, and viewers were removed back by police surrounded the consulate when it set to close.
The US consulate in Chengdu has officially closed and Chinese authorities say they have taken control of the premises https://t.co/ETilsdCR2y
— CNN International (@cnni) July 27, 2020
On Friday, China directed the United States consulate to shut in response to their action, when the United States directed China’s embassy in Houston, Texas, to halt operations, saying that it had been involved in the American-wide Chinese spying efforts.
The Beijing government responded the same way to Americans to shut in 72 hours their Chengdu consulate when china had been given last week in Houston.
On Monday, in a statement, Foreign Affairs’ Ministry of China, said that the Chengdu embassy shut down at 10 am. Moreover, a statement published on Weibo (Chinese social media platform), said that relevant Beijing authorities then entered from the primary entrance and took over.
Chinese took selfies and waved flag outside the consulate
Hundreds of Chinese people, over a weekend, had combined in front of the United States embassy in the city of 16.5 million population, clicking pictures and waving their flags.
The United States insignia, on Saturday, was lowered down, and on Sunday, elimination of work started on a plaque in front of the consulate, and delivery containers were fully loaded onto trucks and personnel set the embassy to be shut down.
The capital city of China’s southwest Sichuan province, Chengdu, was a significant diplomatic spot for the United States, and acquiring a big swath of China which even includes the controversial Tibetan Autonomous area.
On Monday morning, a footage was uploaded to Twitter by the United States Mission in China featured pictures of the Chengdu embassy being unlocked in 1985 by George Bush (then-Vice President), before listing the regions acquired by the diplomatic mission like Tibet.
The mission officially posted on twitter that today, they bid farewell to the United States Embassy General in Chengdu, they will miss them forever.
今天,我们告别美国驻成都总领事馆 。我们会永远想念你们。 pic.twitter.com/sV2fe9KVPJ
— 美国驻华使领馆 US MissionCN (@USA_China_Talk) July 27, 2020
Besides this, the Foreign Ministry of China said that the closure of their consulate in Houston as an unprecedented escalation of currently going tensions between these two nations.
In video: The US Consulate General at #Chengdu lowered the #US national flag at 6:18 am on Monday morning. (Video: CCTV) pic.twitter.com/9MtGIgb1Wo
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) July 27, 2020
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry of China said that the current condition between the U.S. and China is something that China wasn’t looking for, and the responsibility rests completely with the U.S.