san francisco —
Human rights organizations and activists in the United States are calling for a congressional hearing in response to violent assaults on Chinese dissidents who protested against Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the APEC summit in San Francisco November 15-17.
Pro-Xi welcoming groups and anti-Chinese government groups clashed in several locations in San Francisco ahead of and during the APEC summit, resulting in many injuries among anti-Chinese government protesters.
Demonstrators opposing Beijing’s human rights violations and supporting independence for Taiwan were confronted by Xi’s supporters wielding with metal rods, flagpoles, closed umbrellas and pepper spray at San Francisco International Airport, the Moscone Center where the summit was held and the St. Regis Hotel where Xi stayed, among other landmark locations in the city.
Topjor Tsultrim, a member of San Francisco-based Students for a Free Tibet, told VOA that at least 30 Tibetan protesters were assaulted by pro-China groups.
Tsultrim said that on November 17, at the protest site near the airport, three Tibetan college students were beaten by more than 20 Chinese men with metal rods. He said they also broke one of the Tibetans’ phones and threw another phone into a waterway. Two of the Tibetans suffered head and body injuries as well as broken bones and were taken to a hospital by ambulance.
Tsultrim said he was kicked in the chest and thrown to the ground by pro-Xi demonstrators while trying to protect a woman in his group.
People protest against Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, Nov. 15, 2023.
Li Delong, a member of the Chinese Democracy Party Los Angeles committee, told VOA, “On November 16, I was assaulted near the Moscone Center. After the police mistakenly pushed me into a group of Xi’s supporters, two pro-Xi people pulled me down, and one of them beat me on my head with a blunt instrument. I passed out for a while and was bleeding on my head.
“It is deeply unsettling that the Chinese Communist Party dares to export violence onto the U.S. soil, openly assaulting those of us who protest against communism,” Li said.
Wang Dan, a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement and currently a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution, told VOA the organized assaults against Chinese overseas democracy activists should be seen as a serious political event.
This screenshot from video shows Chinese Communist Party supporters and protesters clashing outside of Biden-Xi Meeting at the Filoli Estate in California on Nov. 15, 2023. (Xingchen Zhou/VOA)
“The main instigators behind this violence are pro-China forces within the United States,” Wang said. “We are collecting relevant information and will submit it to Congress and other relevant authorities, urging the U.S. government and Congress to pay high attention to this event.
“Not only the perpetrators but also the political forces behind them should be held accountable.”
Wang said the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco should be closed immediately if there is evidence that it directed the violence.
“In short, the U.S. government should not tolerate the use of violence by authoritarian forces on its soil,” he said.
Chen Chuangchuang, executive director of the Chinese Democracy Party, told VOA the violence against the demonstrators was possible only because of “long-term infiltration into the U.S.” by the CCP.
Chen believes the San Francisco city government either favored the pro-communist side or was negligent and unprofessional in handling the security and protests during Xi’s visit.
“When the [pro-Xi] greeters caused trouble and beat close to a hundred [anti-Xi] protesters in three days, they never arrested the pro-communist thugs,” he said. “But two self-defenders were arrested and prosecuted. The [anti-Xi] protesters called the police many times but received no intervention from them.”
Tsultrim said the police didn’t help when he and his group were followed and assaulted by a pro-Xi group on November 15.
“We actually have a video of us telling the police that these people had been following us, and the police did nothing to stop them. The police said, ‘OK.’ And we kept walking. But the police allowed these Chinese thugs to keep following us,” he said.
Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of Human Rights in China, a nonprofit based in New York and Hong Kong, said his organization would gather evidence of pro-China groups assaulting people and of selective law enforcement by the police.
He said that evidence would be submitted to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
On Nov. 17, 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his visit in the US and left from the San Francisco Airport. Kaiyu Zhang, shown, of the Democracy Party of China, was attacked by a group of people wearing red ribbons. (Photo courtesy Kaiyu Zhang)
“I hope they can hold a hearing on this matter,” Zhou said. “We will request further investigations so that the American public can be informed that the Chinese government could organize such large-scale violent assaults overseas, which is intolerable.”
On Monday, VOA went to the San Francisco Police Department to inquire whether anyone supporting Xi had been arrested last week. The police officer at the reception said he had not heard of any such arrests.
Steven Miller, a police officer with the South San Francisco Police Department, told VOA that he knew of only one case in which an anti-Xi protester reported a crime after being beaten.
VOA sent a letter to the San Francisco Police Department’s Office of Media and Public Relations seeking a response to the complaints that police officers ignored violence by Xi’s supporters and requests for help from anti-Xi protesters.
By the time of publication, VOA had not received any response.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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