Pro-China and Pro-Tibet Groups Clash in San Francisco As Dictator Xi Arrives for APEC

Pro-China demonstrators clashed with pro-Tibetan demonstrators outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in San Francisco on Wednesday as Chinese dictator Xi Jinping arrived for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. 

Almost a thousand demonstrators from both sides were chanting, waving flags, shouting at each other, and occasionally coming to blows by the time Xi reached the hotel, making it the largest protest yet to be held at the APEC meeting. 

The San Francisco Chronicle (SFC) reported scuffles “throughout the day” as the respective groups of demonstrators assembled. The police intervened to separate the groups a few times after people shoved each other and trampled on each other’s flags. Barricades were eventually set up to control the crowd.

“Pro-China protesters blared communist hymns and anthems over loudspeakers, attempting to down out chants of ‘Free Tibet’ and ‘F**k Xi Jinping.’ One person climbed to the top of a flag pole outside of the hotel to hold a flag of Tibet,” the SFC said.

Chemi Lhamo of Students for a Free Tibet told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the flagpole climber’s mission was to “force Xi Jinping to see the Tibetan flag,” which has been outlawed in Tibet itself.

“Tibetans cannot speak Tibetan. Tibetans cannot hold the Tibetan flag,” Lhamo said.

Lhamo criticized American business leaders for holding a reception on Wednesday for Xi, “the guy who is responsible for millions of deaths.”

“Tibetans, Hongkongers, even Chinese people themselves – he’s killing them,” Lhamo said.

The flagpole climber, a 20-year-old student who gave her name as “Tsela,” gave a statement after she descended that said Xi is facing “serious internal challenges to his power,” so the time is right for activists to demand “a new era of freedom for all people suffering under the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.”

Pro-China and Pro-Tibet demonstrators outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Demonstrators march to protest the participation in the APEC Summit of Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

“Under Xi’s rule we have witnessed the establishment of a residential school system that has ripped one million Tibetan children from their families, and the mass collection of DNA from Tibetan monks, nuns, and children,” Tsela said, referring to the “boarding school” system China recently imposed in Tibet. 

Three activists from Students for a Free Tibet managed to climb to the top of the Moscone Center, the venue for the APEC summit, and hang a banner reading: “Dictator Xi Jinping, your time is up! Free Tibet.”

The banner was hung around noon, but did not remain in place for long. Several witnesses told the San Francisco Standard the protesters took the banner down on their own after a few minutes, shouting “Free Tibet!” as they rolled it up.

“Since China’s President Xi last visited the U.S. Tibetans have witnessed our language, religion and culture come under direct attack from Xi’s genocidal policies and we are facing the elimination of our distinct Tibetan language, culture and identity, if the world doesn’t act,” said 17-year-old Tibetan-American Tenzin Namgyal, one of the activists who hung the banner.

The pro-Tibet activists were joined by supporters of Taiwan, the oppressed Uyghur Muslims, and the Hong Kong democracy movement.

Demonstrators shout slogans outside of the Chinese Consulate to protest the participation in the APEC Summit of Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

“We came because we want freedom… in Hong Kong. We cannot do everything over there, and we want to express ourselves. We want Xi Jinping to know we want freedom,” Stanley Tang of the U.S. Hongkongers Club told AFP.

One of the pro-China protesters, U.C. Berkeley student Yanghua Duan, told ABC News that Xi is his “idol” and he wanted to demonstrate his appreciation.

“Students just like him generally and how the country’s going,” Yanghua said. (Chinese students in the U.S. who do not like Xi often find their families back home are menaced by the police.)

Pro-China and pro-Tibet groups also demonstrated outside the Filoli Historic House near San Francisco, where Xi met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday.