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9 arrested at White House China protest

The protest and subsequent arrest

Jiang visit criticized from political right and left

October 26, 1997
Web posted at: 6:58 p.m. EST (2358 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin was hardly off his airplane in sunny Hawaii Sunday when protests against his U.S. visit began -- beneath a chilly drizzle in front of the White House.

Nine conservative Christian activists were arrested Sunday as they prayed on a sidewalk, carrying anti-Jiang signs. They were protesting what they see as China's poor record on human rights and the Clinton's administration's willingness to overlook that record in the interest of better trade relations with the world's most populous country.

"Our policies are immoral," said Randall Terry, a founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. "This has nothing to do with helping the citizens of China. This has to do with fattening the wallets of American big business."

The red carpet being laid for Jiang's visit is "stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition and Loyal Opposition.

The protesters were arrested by U.S. Park Police after they refused to leave a restricted area outside a White House fence. They carried signs reading, "Jiang, Anti-Christ" and "Jiang, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot -- Blood Brothers."

The White House protesters were critical of the Chinese government for allegedly persecuting Christians and forcing women to undergo abortions as a means of population control. Some of the signs they carried called for the release of political dissidents.

But criticism of Jiang's visit wasn't coming only from the political right Sunday.

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"Why should we be rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a regime that crushes dissent in its own country?" said U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a liberal Democrat from San Francisco, on CNN's "Late Edition with Frank Sesno."

"Why should we give a 21-gun-salute to the leader of the People's Liberation Army, which proliferates weapons of mass destruction in rogue nations?" she said.

Jiang, who arrived Sunday in Honolulu to begin the first U.S. visit by a Chinese leader in a dozen years, is expected to face protest rallies at each of his stops in Williamsburg, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

In addition to the Washington protest, at least two others were planned for Sunday outside of events honoring Jiang in Hawaii. They were being organized by critics of China's human rights record and its policies toward Tibet and Taiwan.

 
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