China's Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Photo: VCG

Sources told the Global Times that there have not been any chartered flights between Washington, DC and Shanghai Pudong International Airport in the past three days, after media reported that a flight carried US diplomats to China on Wednesday amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

One source told the Global Times on Friday of no civilian chartered flights between Washington, DC and Shanghai Pudong in the last three days, citing flying data from information provider VariFlight.

The source claims there were very few passenger flights from the US from Tuesday to Thursday. Only a China Eastern Airlines flight from New York to Shanghai Pudong, and a business jet from Honolulu to Shanghai were recorded. The business jet arrived in Shanghai Friday afternoon.

Another source told the Global Times on Friday that the civil aviation regulator did not receive any flight plan applications from the US from Tuesday to Thursday. 

However, both sources said there was only one exception: If the plane is from a country's military, they cannot provide such information.  

Reuters reported on Friday that a flight, carrying an unspecified number of US diplomats, left Washington and flew to Shanghai on Wednesday evening. 

The flight came a day after the US officially ordered the Chinese consulate in Houston to close amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

Reuters reported that the US State Department was planning to arrange a chartered flight to Shanghai from Washington on Thursday.

Also, a tentative July 29 flight to Tianjin and Beijing was in the initial planning stages, and a target date for another flight, to Guangzhou, was still to be determined.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that China and the US maintain communication on the return of US diplomats to China, in response to a question at the ministry's daily press conference.

China on Friday ordered the US to shut its consulate in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, in retaliation for the US asking to close China's consulate in Houston, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, which analysts have called "an equivalent and reciprocal countermeasure."