Hundreds of riot police sitting in Chengdu’s commercial center with shields and batons is certainly protest related. It’s quite a sight, I haven’t seen anything like that since the Xinjiang uprisings a few years ago when police were patrolling Chunxi Lu with assault rifles.
I was going to pass the US consulate in a taxi but the road was shut down because of protestors. It didn’t make sense for them to be protesting at the US Consulate, later I heard that they were marching across the city and had begun at that location. Maybe someone else got a better look at what happened at the consulate.
A few things that are vastly different from this situation and Libya:
In Libya you’re dealing with a citizenry who is armed and battle-hardened, attacking a facility with minimal security. China is totally unarmed and the US Consulate in Chengdu is virtually a fortress, which undoubtedly has layers upon layers of security protocols to keep it safe. China would never allow a US Consulate to fall under attack, especially when the target of these protests is Japan. My understanding is that the Japanese Consulate in Beijing hasn’t been damaged although that is obviously among the biggest targets in China right now.
If I were in the consulate I wouldn’t feel in danger, although Chris Stevens’ death is definitely shocking. Nothing like that has happened in several decades.