American flag lowered at US consulate in Chengdu as relations deteriorate

Earlier, US government forced their Chinese counterparts out of their mission in Houston

Chinese authorities have taken over the US consulate in Chengdu following its closure, the latest historic milestone marking the deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing.

The US lowered its flag over the American consulate in the southwest Chinese city earlier Monday, less than three days after the US government forced their Chinese counterparts out of their mission in Houston. The security cordon around the consulate, which has ebbed and flowed since China announced its decision Friday to expel the diplomats, tightened Monday morning, with police preventing pedestrians from getting within a block of the facility.

Chinese authorities entered the main gate of the consulate, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in statement Monday. The consulate was closed at 10 a.m., according to China’s request. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily briefing in Beijing later Monday that authorities’ entrance into the compoundwas a “legiti­mate and necessary response to what the US did.”