Patriotic Chinese are celebrating Monday’s official closure of the American consulate in Chengdu city in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, with thousands who gathered over the weekend outside the building to observe its demise, and many more sharing anti-U.S. sentiment online.On July 24, Beijing announced that it revoked the licence of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, a strategically important listening post for monitoring events in Tibet and the rest of southwestern China, and ordered its immediate closure. The move was done in retaliation against a U.S. decision to shutter a Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, amid claims of spying and intellectual property theft.The growing feud between Beijing and Washington is fuelling an online propaganda movement on the Chinese internet. The U.S. mission to China shared a heartfelt farewell video on its official Twitter account on Monday morning following its closure. “Today we bid farewell to our U.S. consulate in Chengdu,” it said. “We will miss you forever.”Many users on the Sina Weibo microblogging site however, followed suit, flocking to view and comment on live-streams of the now-empty U.S. consulate. A 5-minute video uploaded by China’s state broadcaster CCTV News went down particularly well among Chinese netizens, receiving more than 11,000 likes and 2.2 million views. News of the consulate’s closure also began trending on the site.“Time to head back to America! Remember to take all your wretched belongings with you,” said Weibo user Kan Lian in response to a video post by state broadcaster CCTV which went viral. “The people of Henan send their congratulations. This was satisfying to see, we don’t need more American spies amidst us,” said another user. Others thanked the Chinese authorities for “efficient, swift action” and called for lion dances to commemorate the vacated premises and hot pot restaurants to be set up in its place.Political YouTube host and Chinese internet personality Jennifer Zeng weighed in on Twitter, questioning the media attention surrounding the consulate’s closure. She said in a tweet: “Why did the [Chinese Communist Party] deploy so many policemen outside the U.S. consulate and block the road? They just wanted to stage a show.”
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Over the weekend, thousands braved the rain just to witness the American consulate’s closure, reports the South China Morning Post. Curious crowds of bystanders of all ages gathered on sidewalks to film the proceedings. Amidst the festivities, local police reported that one man was reprimanded on Friday evening for setting off a firecracker outside the building.