Chinese authorities took control of the former US Consulate in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on Monday after it was ordered closed in retaliation for a US order to vacate the Chinese Consulate in Houston.
A mini tourist atmosphere prevailed outside the facility on a tree-lined street on a hot Sunday, as onlookers shared sidewalk space with dozens of uniformed and plainclothes police opposite the entrance.
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In the more than 40 years since China and the US established formal diplomatic relations, accusations have been traded, tensions have risen and fallen and the two sides have come dangerously close to outright confrontation.
Yet the forced closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston and China's order in response to shutter the US Consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu mark a new low point in ties between the world's largest economies that can't easily be smoothed over.
Mistrust and rancor surrounding disputes over alleged technology theft, national security, human rights, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea are now the main drivers in a relationship that had long sought to compartmentalize such issues to prevent them from impeding trade ties and cooperation in managing issues such as North Korea's nuclear program and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.
A State Department statement expressed disappointment, saying the consulate "has stood at the center of our relations with the people in Western China, including Tibet, for 35 years."
"We are disappointed by the Chinese Communist Party's decision and will strive to continue our outreach to the people in this important region through our other posts in China," it said.
China's foreign ministry issued a brief notice saying "competent authorities" entered through the front entrance and took over the premises after US diplomats closed it at 10 a.m. Prior to that, the flag was lowered and workmen began removing plaques and other signs of US sovereignty on the compound's exterior.
Police asked people to move on when crowds formed outside the consulate, as onlookers took photos and videos of what they expected would be the last time to see the compound in US hands. The street was closed to traffic, except for consular or police vehicles let through by police.
In Houston on Friday a group of men accompanied by a US State Department official were seen forcing open a door at the Chinese Consulate, shortly after the US closure order took effect for a facility that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called "a hub of spying and intellectual property theft."
The US has also alleged that the Houston consulate was a nest of Chinese spies who tried to steal data from facilities in Texas, including the Texas A&M medical system and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. China said the allegations were "malicious slander."
On Sunday, China's foreign ministry issued a statement of protest over what it called intrusions into the Houston consulate that violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the China-US Consular Convention.
"The Chinese side deplores and firmly opposes the US move of forcibly entering China's Consulate General in Houston and has lodged solemn representations. China will make legitimate and necessary reactions," the statement said.
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China maintains consulates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York in addition to its embassy in Washington.
The US has four other consulates in China and an embassy in Beijing, keeping the sides in parity in terms of diplomatic missions.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Monday that the shutdown was a "legitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable act" of the closure of the Houston consulate and the entry of US authorities into it.
"We urge the US to immediately correct its mistakes and create necessary conditions for the relationship between the two countries to return to the normal track," Wang said.
