Police Accused of Inaction As Anti-CCP Activists Assaulted in San Francisco

Human rights activists this week accused the San Francisco Police Department of standing by while loyalists of the Chinese Communist Party assaulted demonstrators who had gathered to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to the United States.

Anti-CCP protesters, who rallied on behalf of freedoms in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, were outnumbered by pro-Beijing counterparts, many of whom were allegedly bused in from other parts of the country.

Xi arrived in San Francisco last week for the annual APEC summit and met U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time in a year amid tensions between Washington and Beijing on multiple fronts. On the streets of the Golden Gate city, however, dissidents and other opponents of China's ruling party said they faced three days of on-and-off violence.

Fengsuo Zhou, executive director of the group Human Rights in China, told Newsweek that U.S.-based pro-CCP groups and their leaders organized transportation for hundreds of residents to travel from New York and other states in order to greet Xi and carry out counterprotests.

In a newsletter published on Monday, Zhou's group shared footage allegedly showing a clash between demonstrators from both sides. Newsweek couldn't independently verify scenes of violence reportedly taking place outside Xi's hotel.

Allen Chen, an attorney and member of the Chinese diaspora political group the Democracy Party of China, told Newsweek that he and several others learned of associates who had been targeted by CCP supporters on November 16. While en route to their location, Chen said they were ambushed, too.

Chen said he was attacked with pepper spray in the scuffle. When police arrived, officers separated the groups but made no effort to identify perpetrators, he said.

The activist said he did not see the police arrest one pro-Beijing demonstrator. Both he and Zhou accused authorities of offering Xi's supporters extra leniency during the high-profile visit.

The SFPD, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry didn't return separate requests for comment before publication.

Zhou, a former student leader in 1989 during China's democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square, said at least three people suffered severe injuries during last week's clashes.

"Several were robbed of their phones while trying to record what was happening," his organization said.

Hong Kong activist Anna Kwok uploaded images to X (formerly Twitter) allegedly showing injuries sustained by fellow protesters.

Activists say organizers across the U.S. belonged to groups affiliated with the CCP's "united front" system, led by the United Front Work Department in Beijing, which seeks to advance the party's ideological and political interests abroad, chiefly through influence and control of overseas Chinese groups in other countries.

The Daily Caller website named one organizer as Liu Qiang, a community leader who told a Chinese-language news outlet that he had helped mobilize pro-CCP supporters and arranged 20 tour busses to ferry them to California.

Liu and his associates couldn't be reached for comment.

"One would think given heightened scrutiny of United Front activities and prosecutions of transnational repression cases, these people dare not carry out this level of violence. Alas. U.S. authorities must investigate," Yaqiu Wang, a researcher at the Freedom House think tank, said of the clashes.

Xi was welcomed outside his hotel in downtown San Francisco by rows of supporters. Nearly 1,000 flag-wavers, mostly overseas Chinese residents, were said to have participated in the welcome, according to the U.S. arm of pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Tao.

Opponents of the party, meanwhile, had assembled outside San Francisco's airport before Xi arrived. Protesters denouncing the CCP also flew a banner above the city earlier in the day.

The incidents in San Francisco reflected broad political and ideological tensions within America's Chinese diaspora. The U.S. government, while trying stabilize ties with the world's second-largest economy, continues to face domestic pressure not to take a softer line on China amid its abuse of basic freedoms inside the country.