China Paid San Francisco Flag-Wavers to Greet Xi Jinping

Chinese diplomats paid patriotic flag-wavers to greet visiting leader Xi Jinping as his convoy arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to rights activists and organizers.

Members of the Chinese diaspora in the United States each received $200 from China's consulate in New York and were ferried to California for the occasion, according to NTD Television, which is affiliated to the Falun Gong religious movement outlawed by the Chinese government.

China's president—the Communist Party's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong—was welcomed outside his downtown San Francisco hotel by rows of supporters carrying Chinese flags. Anti-CCP demonstrators were present before his arrival at the airport.

Xi is attending the annual APEC summit and held face-to-face talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning.

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.

The Daily Caller website identified one organizer as Liu Qiang, who told U.S.-based Chinese-language news outlets that he arranged 20 tour busses to transport supporters in California, New York and other states to downtown San Francisco.

Liu was an active member of the Chinese Communist Party's "united front" system of overseas influence work, the Daily Caller said, noting his frequent participation in related events and prominent roles in planning organizations back in China.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't return a written request for comment before publication. Liu and his representatives couldn't be reached for comment.

China's representatives in the U.S. have been accused of mobilizing pro-Beijing supporters, including university students, in the past. Earlier this year, prosecutors who questioned Lu Jianwang—one of two men charged with operating a clandestine police station in New York City—learned that the local Chinese consulate once paid handpicked protesters to disrupt a previous demonstration against Xi.

This past April, Taiwanese intelligence officials said members of the Chinese diaspora in New York were paid $200 a day to protest against a brief stop in the city by President Tsai Ing-wen. The going rate was raised to $400 for those willing to travel to the West Coast in order to disrupt her meeting with then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), they said.

Outside Xi's hotel this week, dissidents and democracy activists who had gathered to protest the Chinese leader clashed with pro-Beijing groups in altercations that turned violent, according to footage from the scene, which Newsweek couldn't independently verify.

One protester dressed in a golden emperor's robe—a symbol of Xi's endless time in power—appeared to have been targeted. They chanted slogans that denounced the CCP and its human rights abuses.