A video of the Chinese COVID-19 sanitization team disinfecting the US Consulate in China is among a few of the videos from Chengdu that have gone viral.
With mounting tensions between the US and China, the US Consulate in Chengdu was ordered to be shut down by the central government of the People's Republic of China.
The American consulate staff vacated the premises of the United States consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu and announced that it was officially closed from Monday morning.
Amid worsening relations between Beijing and Washington, the Chinese citizens gathered in large numbers outside the consulate to witness the closure of the US consulate.
Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV even held live streaming of the ceremony involving the lowering of the American flag, before the Chinese officials moved into the building.
American flag over the building was lowered at around 6:18 am local time while many stood outside braving the brief spell of rain. Local police at one point had to move the people away from the building.
Beijing ordered for the closure of the US embassy in a tit-for-tat move after Washington ordered China's consulate in Houston, Texas, to cease operations, over allegations that the building was being used as a hub for a US-wide Chinese espionage effort.
The Chinese on Friday after vacating its consulate in Houston gave the US Consulate General in Chengdu 72-hours to vacate its building.
As that deadline expired, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Monday that the Chengdu consulate closed at 10 a.m. "Relevant Chinese authorities then entered from the main entrance and took over," the ministry said in a statement posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
The first to enter the US embassy after the closure was a team of COVID-19 Sanitization workers who disinfected the building before the local officials took over the building. A viral video shows workers wearing protective gear carrying disinfectant. After that, the local town officials enter the building.
While this would seem like a standard protocol considering how every country is fighting the spread of coronavirus, the Chinese Weibo users shared the video of the incident to take pot-shot at the Trump government.
Many claimed that it was much needed considering how the US has been unable to control the coronavirus and there was no guarantee that the Americans working in the US Consulate were not infected.
Other viral videos from the US consulate in Chengdu show Chinese bursting crackers and celebrating the closure of the embassy. Weibo users claimed that the scene outside the US Embassy in Chengdu looked as if Spring Festival was being held there.
