Chinese diplomats refused to leave their consulate to the last, believing that its closure violates the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. For several days, they cramped through confidential documents that had accumulated over 40 years of consular activity.
Only in the final moment, before the deadline, did the diplomats leave the consulate in several minibuses. Immediately after that, units from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and State Department went there. They broke down the doors of the consulate and searched it all day.
U.S. authorities call the Houston Consulate of China a center of espionage, where information stolen from energy, medical and aerospace companies in Texas was sent.
At the same time, the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province, was also closed. There, the business was more usual: at the appointed time diplomats packed their bags and left the consulate building in several trucks. They were accompanied by a crowd of thousands of people.
The state television channel CCTV arranged a live stream from the scene, as if celebrating the return of the American diplomatic enclave to China.