In Beverly Hills, Pickets Take Aim at Many Targets

She gasped as she saw the black limousine with the red flag fluttering from its fender. Then Tsering Sangmo screamed.

“China out of Tibet!” she yelled, tears streaming down her face, as Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for a luncheon Sunday with political and business leaders.

Police held back Sangmo, a 27-year-old Tibetan from San Francisco, as people in the crowd took up her chant--and shouted out their own complaints.

Jiang’s swift visit to the Southland gave about 1,000 protesters a rare chance to publicly voice objections to Beijing and to U.S. policy. And there were plenty of gripes to go around.

One group trying to get Taiwan into the United Nations stood across Wilshire Boulevard from another group trying to get the United States out. Pickets ringed the hotel carrying signs and protesting trade with China, organ harvesting and even strictly American issues such as motorcycle helmet laws.

“One by one, our rights are being taken away, like with motorcycle helmets,” explained Doug Dougherty, 44, an insulation installer from Buena Park. “I don’t like communism.”

Bernie LaChapelle, 50, a construction worker from Santa Ana, held a banner reading “U.N. is Hitler’s Dream Come True.” Said LaChapelle: “I’m opposed to the loss of the sovereignty of the United States.”

Jack Young, 45, a Taiwan-born engineer, was across the street waving a sign that read “UN for Taiwan.” Explained Young: “We want to be in the U.N. so the international community will support Taiwan if the Chinese invade.”

Dozens of members of church groups protested with huge banners printed in English and Chinese and hung from 20-foot-long frames made of snap-together plastic sprinkler pipes.

Arcadia teacher Joe Tonan, 36, held a hand-painted sign and stood next to his 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. “There are Catholic bishops in jail in China for no other reason than they are Catholic bishops. That’s why we’re here,” he said.

Film producer Martin Wassell of Los Angeles had a pair of actors dressed as Chinese police leading a real Tibetan nun and monk through the crowd. The purple-robed Tibetans had movie makeup “blood” painted on their faces; their hands were tied.

“This is the way it really is. There is no religious freedom in Tibet,” Wassell said. The police uniforms were almost real: “They’re from Richard Gere’s new movie, ‘Red Corner,’ ” Wassell said.

Screenwriter Lina Shanklin of Venice wore a papier-mache mask that resembled the face of the Statue of Liberty, except that it was painted red and blue, two of the colors in the Tibetan flag. She was protesting what she described as the trade of human rights “for the almighty dollar.”

Retired teacher Patricia Cracknell of Manhattan Beach was demonstrating against what she believes is the loss of U.S. jobs to China. For that reason, she made certain that the free T-shirt that a young man from the Collegiate Alumni Assn. of Taiwan handed her bore a “made in the USA” label.

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“We’re doing this for our grandchildren,” Cracknell 73, said as her 74-year-old husband, Jack, nodded in agreement.

Taiwanese and Tibetan protesters traveled from San Diego and San Francisco for Sunday’s demonstration, which followed a similar gathering Saturday night in Century City. No protesters showed up for Jiang’s visit Sunday morning at Hughes Electronics in El Segundo. Beverly Hills police said the protest at the Hilton was peaceful.

Ken Wang, 52, an engineer from San Diego, dragged a box filled with signs along the sidewalk in front of the hotel. He wore a shirt that declared: “I am NOT Chinese.”

“In terms of race, yes, we are Chinese. But in our heart, we are Taiwanese--we want self-determination, we want democracy,” Wang said.

Other protesters’ messages were clearer. One man carrying an American flag in one hand and a sign condemning China policies in the other was dressed in pedal pushers with red and white stripes on the right leg and stars on a blue background on the left leg. A woman wearing a black dress, a black veil and black face paint was protesting over allegations, raised by human rights groups, that the Chinese government is taking kidneys and other organs from prisoners for use in transplants.

Few of the demonstrators were close enough to see Jiang’s motorcade arrive at the hotel for the luncheon. Those who were, such as Sangmo--whose family fled Tibet in 1958--were emotional. “I’m so angry, so upset. The U.S. shouldn’t be giving him this kind of reception,” she said.

A few feet away, Taiwan-born Ted Hou, a San Diego businessman, agreed. “This is a shame, a real shame,” he said as the motorcade disappeared onto the hotel grounds.

But Patricia Depew, standing next to Hou, had a different viewpoint.

“It’s a privilege to stand here and protest,” said Depew, a lawyer from West Los Angeles. “If we were in China doing this, we’d be assassinated.”

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Times staff writer Karen Kaplan contributed to this report.