Staff clear US Chengdu consulate as China's closure deadline looms
Staff at the US consulate in Chengdu have been making final efforts to clear the premises before Monday closure ordered by Beijing as relations with Washington continue to worsen.
Security remained tight outside the facility on Sunday, as onlookers shared space with dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police opposite the entrance.
The closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and the US consulate in Chengdu are part of an escalation in tensions between the world’s two biggest 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 clampdown on Hong Kong.
Police in Chengdu asked people to move on when crowds formed outside the consulate, as onlookers took 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 south-western province of Sichuan. According to the editor of a state-run tabloid newspaper, the evacuation deadline is 10am local time on Monday.
In Houston on Friday a group of men accompanied by a US state department official were seen forcing open a door at the Chinese consulate, shortly after the closure order took effect for a facility the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, described as “a hub of spying and intellectual property theft”.
In Chengdu, a bus that had been seen on the US consulate premises on Saturday left on Sunday morning. It was unclear who or what was onboard. Since Friday, consulate staff have been seen coming and going, including at least one with a suitcase. Removal vans arrived and left on Saturday and Sunday.
“China’s response was reciprocal,” said a 63-year-old man outside the consulate who gave only his surname, Yang. The situation was “quite regrettable.”, he added.
On the Chengdu police account on the Chinese social media site Weibo, some were asking the authorities to be lenient towards a man who lit a firework outside the consulate on Friday.
“I believe our country is so powerful, so it has the ability to handle it properly,” said a 25-year-old finance worker who gave only her surname, Zhao, when she passed by the consulate.