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US consulate closure in Chengdu lost 35 years of exchanges, says diplomat’s wife
- Staff worked 24-hour shifts in tearful rush to leave, according to Facebook post by food writer Tzu-i Chuang, wife of US consul general Jim Mullinax
- The consulate was given three days to close in response to the US ordering the closure of China’s consulate in Houston
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Tzu-i Chuang, the wife of the US consul general in Chengdu, said 35 years of exchanges between Beijing and Washington had been consigned to history following China’s closure of the American consulate in the southwestern city.
The Taiwanese food writer, who is married to Jim Mullinax, the US consul general in Chengdu, wrote a Facebook post describing her sadness at the impact of the mission’s closure on its more than 100 local staff, and on the 23 US diplomats and their family members who had flown back to China only last week after leaving during the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
According to her post, employees at the consulate – which had been open since 1985 – worked 24-hour shifts during the three days it was given to close, and many cried after the American flag was lowered for the final time on Monday morning.
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“They wanted to order a banner that read ‘thank you Chengdu 1985-2020’ to hang in front of the consulate building, but unfortunately they were unable to do this, which was very regretful,” Chuang wrote on Monday.
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“Thirty-five years of exchanges have become history, and we are just silt in the tide [of history], powerless to recover everything that should be cherished.”
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