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.

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The move was a response to the Trump administration's order this week for Beijing to close its consulate in Houston after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.

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The Chinese foreign ministry appealed to Washington to reverse its "wrong decision."

Chinese-US relations have soured amid a mounting array of conflicts including trade, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, technology, spying accusations, Hong Kong, and allegations of abuses against Chinese Muslims.

"The measure taken by China is a legitimate and necessary response to the unjustified act by the United States," said a foreign ministry statement.

"The current situation in Chinese-US relations is not what China desires to see. The United States is responsible for all this," the ministry said. "We once again urge the United States to immediately retract its wrong decision and create necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track."

On Tuesday, the Trump administration ordered the Houston consulate closed within 72 hours. It alleged Chinese agents tried to steal data from facilities including the Texas A&M medical system.

The ministry on Thursday rejected the allegations as "malicious slander" and warned the Houston consulate's closure was "breaking down the bridge of friendship" between the two countries.

The United States has an embassy in Beijing and consulates in five other mainland cities – Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang, and Wuhan. It also has a consulate in Hong Kong, a Chinese territory.

The consulate in Chengdu is responsible for monitoring Tibet and other areas in the southwest inhabited by non-ethnic Chinese minorities that are considered especially sensitive by Beijing.

A source had previously told Reuters that China was considering shutting the US consulate in Wuhan, where the United States withdrew staff early this year as the coronavirus outbreak raged.

A state newspaper editor had suggested that China could order a dramatic scale-back of staff at the US consulate in Hong Kong.

"The Chengdu consulate is more important than the Wuhan consulate because that is where the US gathers information about Tibet and China's development of strategic weapons in neighboring regions," said Wu Xinbo, a professor and American studies expert at Fudan University in Shanghai.

He said the Chengdu consulate was less important for trade and economic activity than US consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.

Asian stock markets, already uneasy about the uncertain pace of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, fell Friday on the news of the closure. China's market benchmark, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 3.1%. Hong Kong's main index declined by 2.4%.

"Alongside the eviction of the Houston Chinese Consulate, the risk of the US-China conflict escalating into a 'Cold War' is worrying," said Hayaki Narita of Mizuho Bank in a report.

The consulate in Chengdu was in the news in 2012 when Wang Lijun, the police chief of the major city of Chongqing, visited and told American officials his concerns about the death of a British business associate of the wife of Chongqing's Communist Party secretary, Bo Xilai.

That prompted the British Embassy to ask for a new investigation, which led to the arrest and conviction of Bo's wife. Bo was later dismissed and sentenced to prison.

The consulate was surrounded by police while Wang was inside. He later emerged and was arrested and sentenced to 15 years on charges of corruption and defection. The US government has refused to confirm whether Wang asked for asylum.

Also Thursday, the US Justice Department said it believes the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco is harboring a Chinese researcher, Tang Juan, who is accused of lying about her background in the Communist Party's military wing on a visa application.

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The department announced criminal charges of visa fraud against Tang and three other Chinese researchers.

US authorities this week announced criminal charges against two Chinese computer hackers who are accused of targeting companies that are working on vaccines for the coronavirus.

The Justice Department said Tang lied on a visa application last October as she made plans to work at the University of California, Davis, and again during an FBI interview months later.

US officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have stepped up accusations of technology theft. In a speech Thursday, Pompeo said some Chinese students and others "come here to steal our intellectual property and to take this back to their country."

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