First published July 24, 2020 / 17:30 CST / last updated 21.55 CST

The US-ordered closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston was big news on Weibo yesterday.

Today, it is the China-ordered closure of the American consulate in Chengdu that has become the number one trending topic on the social media site. The topic page garnered over 870 million views on Weibo just after 5 pm Beijing time.

On July 24, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the United States Consulate that its permission to operate in Chengdu was revoked and that it needs to halt all operations.

PRC Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying (华春莹) tweeted on July 24 that the move is a “legitimate & necessary response to the unilateral provocative move by the US to demand the closure of China’s Consulate General in Houston.”

This is a legitimate & necessary response to the unilateral provocative move by the US to demand the closure of China’s Consulate General in Houston. — Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) July 24, 2020

China state media outlet CCTV posted a blue banner on social media with the characters “反制” on it, meaning “to hit back” (or: “retaliation”).

According to the BBC, the American side has been given the time until Monday to close its Chengdu consulate. The United States Consulate at Chengdu opened in 1985.

Similarly, the Chinese consulate in Houston, the first Chinese consulate in the United States, was only given 72 hours to leave the compound, leading to the alleged burning of paper documents in the consulate courtyard.

On Weibo, over two million people ‘liked’ one of the news posts reporting on the closure of the consulate in Chengdu. The most popular comment of the comment thread, receiving over 231,000 ‘thumbs up’ suggested to “directly turn [the consulate] into a hotpot restaurant.”

Chengdu is one of China’s authentic hotpot hot spots, and is famous for its Sichuan hotpot, with many hotpot restaurants scattered around the city.

“I’ve already got a hotpot restaurant name ready, when can we move in?”, one commenter suggested, with others responding that the only suitable name for the imaginary hotpot place would be “Trump Hotpot.”

A photoshopped design of the future hotpot place was shared on Weibo and Douyin.

Many commenters applauded China’s response to American actions and support the ordered closure of the consulate and called it “delightful”, “as long as they don’t take our hotpot recipes with them.”

Others also joke: “The Chengdu American consulate has been frantically stealing our secret hotpot recipes, they’re a threat to our hotpot culture!”

According to reports on Weibo, people were hanging around the American consulate on Friday afternoon “in hopes of seeing some smoke,” with many expecting there to be some document-burning.

From what I'm reading, people are hanging around the American embassy in Chengdu waiting for document-burning smoke to appear. pic.twitter.com/tyj1i9iGs6 — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 24, 2020

Might as well grab a snack while waiting for something to happen. pic.twitter.com/WYK86rZVO8 — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 24, 2020

Meanwhile, a live streaming channel of CCTV broadcasting scenes around the consulate received a staggering 34 million views on Friday evening, Beijing time. Some people commented that they wanted to see what was happening around the area to “witness history.”

Weibo users shared videos of someone allegedly setting off firecrackers near the consulate on Friday evening.

Someone ignited firecrackers near the consulate?! pic.twitter.com/u08bVcUCiP — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 24, 2020

This video, being shared on Weibo, gives a clearer view of the situation around the Chengdu US Consulate when firecrackers were set off just earlier tonight. pic.twitter.com/tIigqYeWXY — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 24, 2020

One CGTN reporter who was reporting from the scene said that there was “no need to panic” because “local residents are having a wedding today” (see video embedded below). The reporter received some criticism from individual Weibo users who wrote it was not right for her to report something that was “not actually true.”

"There is no need to panic, some local residents are having a wedding today." pic.twitter.com/CebdwzPDYK — Manya Koetse (@manyapan) July 24, 2020

Photos of a man being taken away by the police in relation to the firecracker incident was individually reposted on Weibo many times, with netizens praising the “uncle” or “brother.”

A milk tea and ice jelly shop near the consulate did good business on Friday night with so many people hanging around to see if something would happen. “They’re the real winners of today,” one Weibo user said.

By Manya Koetse

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