Taiwanese reporters were harassed in San Francisco on Monday while trying to film the St Regis Hotel where Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to stay during the APEC summit.
The reporters were filming the building’s exterior when they were confronted by a man speaking Mandarin with a mainland Chinese accent.
They said he asked them not to film a portion of a driveway, which had a makeshift structure covered in white cloth over it.
Photo: CNA
Vehicles with covered license plates could be seen using the driveway.
The structure was “his property,” the man said, asking the reporters to delete any photographs or footage they had taken of it.
An altercation ensued.
“We booked the entire hotel. It is our property now. I have the right to ask you not to film,” the man said.
He also warned the journalists not to enter the lobby or it would be “embarrassing” for them.
Asked to identify himself, he declined to answer and said that his face “must not be shown.”
Some Chinese reporters staying at the Hyatt Regency diagonally across the street were also stopped from filming and left.
Security measures at the St Regis, which US media reported has been booked out by China for the APEC summit, have been bolstered, with second-floor window panes covered in frosted film and barricades set up around sidewalks adjacent to the hotel’s parking lot.
Xi was to be in San Francisco from yesterday to Friday to attend the summit, a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs schedule showed.
He is to meet US President Joe Biden today on the sidelines of the summit.
Security has also been stepped up near the Fairmont San Francisco, where Biden is booked to stay, with barricades being erected in the area.
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