Red and gold Chinese flags drape the International District in celebration of Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
Hundreds of demonstrators are expected downtown after Hu's arrival today.
Practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement labeled an "evil cult" in China, will be protesting oppression. Taiwanese-Americans will be asserting that island nation's right to continued independence. Tibetans will be calling for an end to China's rule of their homeland.
But for many, Hu's visit here -- his first US stop before going to Washington DC -- is good news.
"There's pride in the International District about China's rise, and lots of people will be quite happy that he's coming," said David Bachman, a professor at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies.
Assunta Ng, who publishes the Northwest Asian weekly, said Hu's visit will be a test of his diplomacy.
"The world is watching," said Ng, who also publishes the Chinese-language Seattle China Post, which last week offered a 12-page special section on Hu's visit.
Chinese-American community leaders organized a welcoming party "to counteract the protest," said Ng, who plans to join other media, including scores of reporters from China and Hong Kong, at Boeing Field for Hu's arrival.
There won't be many protests from labor, said David Grove with the Washington State Labor Council. This is one state where the balance of trade with China is not a problem, he said. Just last week Beijing placed a tentative order for 80 Boeing jets, and Hu planned to visit Boeing's Everett plant tomorrow.
"Our members understand the significant role China's going to play in airplane sales for the next 20 years," said spokeswoman Connie Kelliher at Machinists Lodge 751, whose members help build those planes.
"Our concern is always about how they treat their people," she said of the human-rights issues that continue to shadow China.
Hu is dining today with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose company also does big business with China. On Friday, China announced a ban on sales of computers without legal software to ease Microsoft's concerns about piracy.
The Chinese president is also meeting with Governor Chris Gregoire and other US Northwest leaders.
Tibet has been chafing under Chinese rule for decades -- and, from 1988 to 1992, under Hu's leadership there.
"When he was there, the big pro-independence demonstration in 1989 was brutally cracked down under his orders," said Tenzin Wangyal of Seattle, whose family followed the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, into exile in India.
"A lot of peaceful protesters were killed and arrested and tortured and some to this day we don't know what happened to them," Wangyal said. "We feel that he has responsibility for what he has done."
Wangyal said he expects about 100 people, members of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Students for a Free Tibet and supporters from Seattle, Portland, Oregon; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Another 100 people are expected by Stanley Hsiao of Bellevue, Washington, a member of the Taiwanese-American Association of Greater Seattle.
"Of course China, they try to indicate that they like to be friends with Taiwan but ... they have more than 800 missiles aimed at Taiwan," Hsiao said.
He was wary of the motivation for Hu's visit, suggesting it was a "trick to temporarily please the American people."
Ng says Hu is different from his predecessors -- younger, and an engineer by training.
"It's kind of unfortunate that even though he's young, his mind is old," countered Jiang Lu Lin of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. "He still sticks to the old Chinese principle that Taiwan cannot separate from China."
Falun Gong practitioner Zhi-ping Kolouch said she hopes 300 people -- from California, Oregon and Montana as well as the Seattle and Spokane areas -- will join her today to protest Chinese oppression. She saw China's influence in the denial of a demonstration permit for her group.
"We're still going to have a sidewalk parade ... tell the people what's going on," she said, referring to imprisonment and torture that have drawn criticism from UN human-rights investigators.
China said the investigators were not in the country long enough to understand its complexities.
"As long as persecution keeps going, protests keep going, too," said Kolouch, who questioned why the state would do business with such a regime.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) purge of his most senior general is driven by his effort to both secure “total control” of his military and root out corruption, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said told Bloomberg Television yesterday. The probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), Xi’s second-in-command, announced over the weekend, is a “major development,” Perdue said, citing the family connections the vice chair of China’s apex military commission has with Xi. Chinese authorities said Zhang was being investigated for suspected serious discipline and law violations, without disclosing further details. “I take him at his word that there’s a corruption effort under
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS