Foreign Affairs

China-Linked Groups Violently Repressed Protesters In US During Xi Jinping Visit: Report

President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia, Nov. 14. 2022. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

Diaspora groups supportive of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) violently repressed dissident protesters during President Xi Jinping’s November visit to San Francisco, California, for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, according to The Washington Post.

At least 35 pro-CCP groups representing Chinese nationals in the U.S. coordinated to protest against dissidents of the regime who were protesting Xi’s visit to San Francisco, with Chinese Consulates providing hotels and meals for the pro-CCP protesters, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of photos, videos and chat messages of the groups during the protests. The pro-CCP protesters, who had Chinese Consulate diplomats among them, sprayed anti-CCP protesters with chemical irritants, hit them with flagpoles and used gangs of young men to beat dissidents.

The Washington Post’s reporting is based, in part, on revelations uncovered by the Daily Caller News Foundation nearly a year earlier. The DCNF found that Lu Qiang, designated as an “Overseas Chinese leader,” with deep ties to the CCP, arranged for hundreds of foreign nationals living in the U.S. to bus into San Francisco during Xi Jinping’s visit to welcome him. He utilized his travel agency, Deer USA Inc., to arrange for 20 buses to carry nearly 1,000 people and hired ten armed guards to “maintain order on the scene.”

“From Australia to Europe and across North America … [the CCP] mobilizes surrogates to ostracize, intimidate, surround and silence the activists,” Glenn Tiffert, a distinguished research fellow at the Hoover Institution, told The Washington Post. “The tactics differ, the goal is the same: to isolate, bury and extinguish so that it alone monopolizes the field.”

Many anti-CCP protesters used the arrival of Xi to express their discontent with the Chinese regime, with protest groups organized by Students for a Free Tibet, the Hong Kong Democracy Council and the China Democracy Party, among many others, according to the Washington Post. While there was fighting from both sides of the issue, most of the violence was allegedly perpetrated by pro-CCP protesters.

One incident on November 17 involved 51-year-old dissident Zhang Kaiyu being beaten by a gang of young Chinese men after Zhang shouted “Fuck Xi Jinping,” according to The Washington Post. Zhang was beaten unconscious and taken to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion, among several other injuries.

Another incident on November 15 involved a gang of pro-CCP protesters stalking dissidents and beating them with flagpoles, metal knuckles and metal rods, according to The Washington Post. The next day, as Chinese diplomats made their way to the summit, a brawl left many protesters bleeding and hurt, including one who was struck with a bottle over the head.

Pro-CCP protestors were accompanied by at least 60 private security personnel, who were hired by Chinese diplomats to accompany the protesters, according to The Washington Post. Some of the private security were involved in violent altercations with dissident protesters.

At least four Chinese diplomats were in attendance during the protests, two from the San Francisco Consulate and two from the Los Angeles Consulate, according to The Washington Post. They all enjoy diplomatic immunity, which would prevent prosecution from an investigation into their involvement.

“Everywhere we went … we were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the pro-CCP people,” Zhang told The Washington Post.

The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.