Police corral crowds as movers leave US Consulate in China
Source: AP
By SAM McNEIL
CHENGDU, China (AP) — Moving trucks and vehicles with diplomatic plates pulled out of a U.S. Consulate in southwest China on Sunday, as its impending closure over rising bilateral tensions drew a steady stream of onlookers for the second straight day.
People stopped to take selfies and photos, jamming a sidewalk busy with shoppers and families with strollers on a sunny day in the city of Chengdu. A little boy posed with a small Chinese flag before plainclothes police shooed him away as foreign media cameras zoomed in.
The capital of Sichuan province, along with Houston in Texas, has found itself in the limelight of international politics as China and the U.S. exchanged tit-for-tat orders last week to close each other’s consulates in the two heartland cities.
Police in Chengdu have shut the street and sidewalk in front of the consulate and set up metal barriers along the sidewalk on the other side of the tree-lined road.
A movers' truck with the words "Liberation" on top arrives outside the United States Consulate in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province on Sunday, July 26, 2020. China ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, ratcheting up a diplomatic conflict at a time when relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
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