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The Chinese authorities gave the Americans the identical 72-hour time-frame to shut their Chengdu mission as Beijing had been given in Houston final week.
As that deadline expired, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release Monday that the Chengdu consulate closed at 10 a.m. “Relevant Chinese authorities then entered from the main entrance and took over,” the ministry stated in a press release posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Over the weekend, tons of of individuals had gathered outdoors the US consulate in the town of 16.5 million folks, taking selfies and waving Chinese flags.
On Saturday, the US insignia was taken down, whereas on Sunday elimination work started on a plaque outdoors the embassy and delivery containers have been loaded onto vans, as employees ready for the consulate to be closed.
Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwest Sichuan province, was an necessary diplomatic outpost for the US, overlaying a big swath of the nation, together with the controversial Tibetan Autonomous area.
“Today, we bid farewell to the US Consulate General in Chengdu. We will miss you forever,” the mission’s official put up stated.
Espionage allegations
US officers advised reporters Friday that employees on the Chinese consulate “were directly involved in communications with researchers and guided them on what information to collect.”
According to a senior State Department official, the thought to shut the Houston consulate emerged this spring after China interfered when US officers returned to the consulate in Wuhan to retrieve diplomatic supplies.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry referred to as the closure of the Houston consulate an “unprecedented escalation” of ongoing tensions between the 2 international locations.
“The current situation between China and the United States is something China does not want to see, and the responsibility rests entirely with the United States,” the Chinese international ministry stated in the assertion.
US-China tensions rise
Tensions between the US and China have been strained by the continuing commerce warfare, allegations over the coronavirus pandemic and US criticism of human rights abuses in each Hong Kong and Xinjiang, which Beijing denies.
“As President Trump has made very clear, we need a strategy that protects the American economy and indeed our way of life. The free world must triumph over this new tyranny,” Pompeo stated.
“The truth is that our policies — and those of other free nations — resurrected China’s failing economy, only to see Beijing bite the international hands that were feeding it. We opened our arms to Chinese citizens, only to see the Chinese Communist Party exploit our free and open society.”
CNN’s James Griffiths contributed to this write.
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