Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) was tailed by protesters after arriving in Seattle on Tuesday on the first stop of his US visit, with signs and placards denouncing China's cruel treatment of Falun Gong members and calling for the release of dissidents.
Dozens of demonstrators lined the streets outside the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle, where Hu was staying, holding large banners and using bullhorns to try to grab his attention as his motorcade whisked through.
"Nazi-like brutal genocide concentration camps are re-emerging in China," and "Bring criminal officials who persecute Falun Gong to justice," two signs by the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement said outside the hotel.
"Free Tibet. China get out of Tibet," Tibetans and Tibet rights advocates shouted.
Across the street, however, a handful of Chinese tried to counter the protests by playing drums and and waving Chinese flags.
Both sides were peaceful and orderly. No confrontations occurred.
Perhaps due to the expected loud protests in the US, security at his hotel was tighter than usual.
Journalists were not allowed to enter the hotel or wait outside, in contrast to common practice when Hu is overseas. Reporters are normally allowed to wait in the lobby for him, in hopes he will make some comments.
"This time it will be different," a foreign ministry official said, without explaining why.
Protesters followed Hu everywhere, waiting at street corners along his route.
Several Falun Gong members sat on the lawn of the Microsoft compound in Redmond, near Seattle, with legs folded, meditating.
"Falun Dafa [Gong] is Good," the group's sign said. China banned the group as an "evil cult" in 1999 and has jailed tens of thousands of its members.
Other protesters quietly held up signs demanding the release of locked up dissidents, including US permanent resident Yang Jianli (楊建利), whose case is expected to be raised by US President George W. Bush during a summit in Washington today.
Still others called for the lifting of Internet restrictions, including the shutting down of politically sensitive Web sites and jailing of Web masters and writers for expressing their opinions.
One placard also addressed to Microsoft founder Bill Gates said: "Bill and Hu, Free the Web."
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) brushed aside the protests.
"We believe their efforts to disturb President Hu's visit will not be successful," Liu said at a briefing.
Neither Gates nor anyone who met with Hu on Tuesday raised issues of Internet censorship, human rights or jailed dissidents, Liu said.
Despite an Easter break, the US Congress scheduled meetings this week to scrutinize China's human rights record, with lawmakers saying on Tuesday they did not want China's abysmal human rights record glossed over during Hu's visit.
Liu said China was willing to discuss human rights with the US, under the basis of mutual respect and equality.
Around 70 Falun Gong members continued to meditate outside Hu's hotel late into the night.
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