>**How China extended its repression into an American city**
>Chinese diplomats and pro-China diaspora groups based in the United States organized demonstrations in San Francisco that harassed and silenced protesters opposed to Beijing’s policies, including through violence, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the city in November, a six-month investigation by The Washington Post shows.
>The events in San Francisco illustrate how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is willing to extend its intolerance of any dissent into the United States and target people exercising their First Amendment rights in an American city. It is part of a broader global pattern of China attempting to reach beyond its borders and suppress parts of its diaspora advocating against the CCP and ongoing rights abuses in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and mainland China, the U.S. government and human rights groups say.
>A number of diaspora group leaders have long-standing links to Beijing, according to Chinese state media, photos of high-level events and interviews, including with Chinese activists, former FBI officials and researchers. These include ties to the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Communist Party which uses non-state actors to further China’s political goals overseas, blurring the line between civilians and state officials.
>This investigation into Xi’s visit to San Francisco during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is based on an analysis of more than 2,000 photos and videos from Students for a Free Tibet, the Hong Kong Democracy Council, the China Democracy Party, observers, social media and live streams; as well as interviews with more than 35 witnesses, U.S. officials and analysts; text messages from American security guards working with Chinese diplomats, messages shared in Chinese diaspora WeChat groups, medical reports and police reports obtained by The Post.
>The Post also used facial recognition software to search more than 21 hours of footage to identify the actions of pro-CCP diaspora group leaders and Chinese officials. Several people were identified through leads from a separate facial recognition search engine, which were then independently verified by cross-referencing against news clips, interviews and publicly available information. Some of the most violent figures were wearing face masks, sunglasses and hats that obscured their faces and could not be identified.
>The Post investigation found:
> -While there was aggression from both sides, the most extreme violence was instigated by pro-CCP activists and carried out by coordinated groups of young men embedded among them, verified videos show. Anti-Xi protesters were attacked with extended flagpoles and chemical spray, punched, kicked and had fistfuls of sand thrown in their faces.
> -The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles paid for supporters’ hotels and meals as an incentive to participate, according to messages shared in WeChat groups reviewed by The Post. At least 35 pro-CCP Chinese diaspora groups showed up to the APEC summit protests — including groups from New York, Pennsylvania and Washington state.
> -Videos show at least four Chinese diplomats from the consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco among the crowd of pro-CCP protesters, sometimes directly interacting with aggressive actors over four days of protests from Nov. 14-17. Some Chinese diaspora group leaders with ties to the Chinese state participated in some of the violence, the videos show.
> -Chinese diplomats hired at least 60 private security guards to “protect” Chinese diaspora groups gathered to welcome Xi, according to seven people involved in the arrangement.
>Students for a Free Tibet and the Hong Kong Democracy Council in late July published a joint report on the events at APEC, which The Post also referenced. Additionally, The Post worked with Audrye Wong, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, who has extensively researched China’s foreign influence efforts.
>The Post contacted 14 individuals who directly represent or are affiliated with the pro-Beijing diaspora groups at APEC through emails, social media messages, phone calls or visits to their residences or offices. Most did not respond to The Post’s inquiries; two declined to comment.
>In response to extensive questions from The Post, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, and spokespeople from the Chinese consulates in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles sent identical emailed statements, stating that members of Chinese communities traveled to San Francisco voluntarily to welcome Xi and were instead the ones subject to “multiple incidents of provocations and violence.”
>“A few U.S. organizations and agencies have been piecing together fabricated ‘evidence’ to make defamatory assumptions and groundless ‘investigations’ about the voluntary welcoming groups, as well as smearing allusions to Chinese diplomats and consulates in the U.S.,” the emailed statements said. “Such narratives are sheer political maneuvering, which China strongly opposes. The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to immediately stop the erroneous practices of hyping up falsehoods.”
The statements also condemned what they said were “violent attacks” against “Chinese welcoming crowds,” adding that the Chinese Embassy has asked American authorities to investigate the violence.
>The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing did not respond to inquiries.
>Beijing billed Xi’s visit as the start of a new, friendlier chapter in U.S.-China relations, his first to the United States in six years. But U.S. officials described the events in San Francisco as an example of Beijing’s “transnational repression” — its efforts to intimidate and silence critics, including through violence, outside its borders.
>“We are aware that some pro-PRC counter protesters clashed violently with groups peacefully demonstrating” at the APEC summit, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told The Post. “The PRC’s efforts to harass and threaten individuals … and undermine their enjoyment of freedoms of expression and assembly are unacceptable.”
>State Department officials raised concerns about the violence and intimidation directly with the Chinese government, according to a department official, who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The FBI, separately, is investigating the violence at the APEC summit, according to two officials familiar with the matter. Several victims and an alleged perpetrator told The Post that they have been interviewed by the FBI since the summit.
A spokeswoman for the bureau said it could not confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, citing department policy.
>The goal in San Francisco, analysts and officials say, was to present a view of the Chinese diaspora as being overwhelmingly pro-CCP and loyal to Xi, erasing dissenting voices who have fled to the United States in significant numbers because of domestic repression.
>Beijing “wants to show the people [back] in China how American people welcome Xi,” said Gao Guangjun, a New York-based lawyer who escaped China following the Tiananmen Square massacre and is familiar with the Chinese diaspora in the United States.
>“It’s propaganda,” he added, “that’s the reason they spend a lot of money on it.”
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!ping CHINA&FOREIGN-POLICY
>**How China extended its repression into an American city**
>Chinese diplomats and pro-China diaspora groups based in the United States organized demonstrations in San Francisco that harassed and silenced protesters opposed to Beijing’s policies, including through violence, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the city in November, a six-month investigation by The Washington Post shows.
>The events in San Francisco illustrate how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is willing to extend its intolerance of any dissent into the United States and target people exercising their First Amendment rights in an American city. It is part of a broader global pattern of China attempting to reach beyond its borders and suppress parts of its diaspora advocating against the CCP and ongoing rights abuses in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and mainland China, the U.S. government and human rights groups say.
>A number of diaspora group leaders have long-standing links to Beijing, according to Chinese state media, photos of high-level events and interviews, including with Chinese activists, former FBI officials and researchers. These include ties to the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Communist Party which uses non-state actors to further China’s political goals overseas, blurring the line between civilians and state officials.
>This investigation into Xi’s visit to San Francisco during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is based on an analysis of more than 2,000 photos and videos from Students for a Free Tibet, the Hong Kong Democracy Council, the China Democracy Party, observers, social media and live streams; as well as interviews with more than 35 witnesses, U.S. officials and analysts; text messages from American security guards working with Chinese diplomats, messages shared in Chinese diaspora WeChat groups, medical reports and police reports obtained by The Post.
>The Post also used facial recognition software to search more than 21 hours of footage to identify the actions of pro-CCP diaspora group leaders and Chinese officials. Several people were identified through leads from a separate facial recognition search engine, which were then independently verified by cross-referencing against news clips, interviews and publicly available information. Some of the most violent figures were wearing face masks, sunglasses and hats that obscured their faces and could not be identified.
>The Post investigation found:
> -While there was aggression from both sides, the most extreme violence was instigated by pro-CCP activists and carried out by coordinated groups of young men embedded among them, verified videos show. Anti-Xi protesters were attacked with extended flagpoles and chemical spray, punched, kicked and had fistfuls of sand thrown in their faces.
> -The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles paid for supporters’ hotels and meals as an incentive to participate, according to messages shared in WeChat groups reviewed by The Post. At least 35 pro-CCP Chinese diaspora groups showed up to the APEC summit protests — including groups from New York, Pennsylvania and Washington state.
> -Videos show at least four Chinese diplomats from the consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco among the crowd of pro-CCP protesters, sometimes directly interacting with aggressive actors over four days of protests from Nov. 14-17. Some Chinese diaspora group leaders with ties to the Chinese state participated in some of the violence, the videos show.
> -Chinese diplomats hired at least 60 private security guards to “protect” Chinese diaspora groups gathered to welcome Xi, according to seven people involved in the arrangement.
>Students for a Free Tibet and the Hong Kong Democracy Council in late July published a joint report on the events at APEC, which The Post also referenced. Additionally, The Post worked with Audrye Wong, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, who has extensively researched China’s foreign influence efforts.
>The Post contacted 14 individuals who directly represent or are affiliated with the pro-Beijing diaspora groups at APEC through emails, social media messages, phone calls or visits to their residences or offices. Most did not respond to The Post’s inquiries; two declined to comment.
>In response to extensive questions from The Post, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, and spokespeople from the Chinese consulates in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles sent identical emailed statements, stating that members of Chinese communities traveled to San Francisco voluntarily to welcome Xi and were instead the ones subject to “multiple incidents of provocations and violence.”
>“A few U.S. organizations and agencies have been piecing together fabricated ‘evidence’ to make defamatory assumptions and groundless ‘investigations’ about the voluntary welcoming groups, as well as smearing allusions to Chinese diplomats and consulates in the U.S.,” the emailed statements said. “Such narratives are sheer political maneuvering, which China strongly opposes. The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to immediately stop the erroneous practices of hyping up falsehoods.”
The statements also condemned what they said were “violent attacks” against “Chinese welcoming crowds,” adding that the Chinese Embassy has asked American authorities to investigate the violence.
>The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing did not respond to inquiries.
>Beijing billed Xi’s visit as the start of a new, friendlier chapter in U.S.-China relations, his first to the United States in six years. But U.S. officials described the events in San Francisco as an example of Beijing’s “transnational repression” — its efforts to intimidate and silence critics, including through violence, outside its borders.
>“We are aware that some pro-PRC counter protesters clashed violently with groups peacefully demonstrating” at the APEC summit, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told The Post. “The PRC’s efforts to harass and threaten individuals … and undermine their enjoyment of freedoms of expression and assembly are unacceptable.”
>State Department officials raised concerns about the violence and intimidation directly with the Chinese government, according to a department official, who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The FBI, separately, is investigating the violence at the APEC summit, according to two officials familiar with the matter. Several victims and an alleged perpetrator told The Post that they have been interviewed by the FBI since the summit.
A spokeswoman for the bureau said it could not confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, citing department policy.
>The goal in San Francisco, analysts and officials say, was to present a view of the Chinese diaspora as being overwhelmingly pro-CCP and loyal to Xi, erasing dissenting voices who have fled to the United States in significant numbers because of domestic repression.
>Beijing “wants to show the people [back] in China how American people welcome Xi,” said Gao Guangjun, a New York-based lawyer who escaped China following the Tiananmen Square massacre and is familiar with the Chinese diaspora in the United States.
>“It’s propaganda,” he added, “that’s the reason they spend a lot of money on it.”