Protesters’ ‘Stateless Dinner’ Counters One Honoring Jiang

“In the United States, freedom of speech and assembly are considered inalienable rights; in China, they are considered criminal offenses,” Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) said boldly Wednesday, effectively summing up the message of an eclectic group of demonstrators protesting the visit here of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Although protests are planned for each day of Jiang’s U.S. trip, the primary focus of demonstrators was on two Wednesday events--an afternoon rally in Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and an evening “stateless dinner” in a downtown hotel, a parody of the glittering state dinner that President Clinton held in honor of the Chinese leader.

More than a dozen speakers--Republicans and Democrats from Congress, exiled Chinese dissidents, entertainers, labor leaders and representatives of the Christian right--addressed the Lafayette Park rally attended by a crowd that organizers put at 2,000, but which appeared to be somewhat smaller.

Later, several hundred people, including a sprinkling of Buddhist monks in saffron robes, gathered atop a hotel a little more than a block from the White House for the stateless dinner--actually a short buffet of hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. The event was focused on calls for autonomy in Tibet.

Tibet supporters, including Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), offered toasts calling for freedom for the Himalayan territory, which has been ruled by Communist China since the 1950s.

Chinese officials had sought to head off the demonstrations, warning the Clinton administration that the events would poison the atmosphere for talks that both governments hope will put a new and businesslike face on Sino-American relations after years of mutual suspicion.

Certainly the words from the stage and from the audience Wednesday were intended to give offense to both Clinton and Jiang. But the presidents neither saw nor heard the demonstrators at the park, and the gathering was so orderly that rows of riot-equipped police had nothing to do but bask in the fall sunshine.

Demonstrators brought several papier-mache copies of the Goddess of Democracy statue that Chinese students rallied around in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. The Chinese government’s ruthless suppression of those pro-democracy demonstrations--hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters were slain by troops--soured Washington-Beijing relations for much of the past eight years.

The crowd at the rally carried a variety of signs, such as a hand-lettered poster that combined several strains of protest against the policies of both governments: “The Chinese people get enough abuse from their government. They don’t need our nuclear power failures,” a reference to an agreement announced Wednesday clearing the way for U.S. firms to sell nuclear energy technology to China.

Several demonstrators carried the flag of the long-defunct government of South Vietnam, defeated during the Vietnam War by the Chinese-backed North Vietnamese. Others waved the flag of Tibetan nationalism, while still others demanded independence for Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue province of China.

There was a strong undercurrent of protest against the U.S. corporations that hope to profit from closer Washington-Beijing relations.

Gary Bauer, director of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian organization, noted that the protesters were an odd coalition of political left and right. But, he said, “I would rather be in this coalition than the other coalition that brings together American capitalists and Chinese Communists.”

Although almost all the speakers criticized Clinton for failing to stand up to Chinese human rights abuses, there was no real consensus on what the president should do to correct the situation. Most speakers insisted that they did not advocate isolating China.

“We want engagement with China, but we want effective engagement . . . based on American values, not American business,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

Tong Yi, an exiled former Chinese political prisoner and onetime aide to Wei Jingsheng, probably China’s best known imprisoned dissident, accused Clinton of ignoring the plight of political prisoners.

“In entertaining Jiang Zemin in the White House, the U.S. government is delivering a slap in the face” to Wei and other prisoners of conscience, Tong said.

Lodi Gyari, president of the International Campaign for Tibet and envoy of the Dalai Lama, said Clinton promised the Dalai Lama during the exiled Tibetan leader’s visit to Washington in April that Tibet would be a “high-profile” issue in his talks with Jiang.

“I want to believe him,” Gyari said, “but I want to remind him.”

Actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist, served as host of the stateless dinner, which competed with the White House dinner for high-profile guests. Some people, such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), planned to eat at the White House but also visit the protest dinner to offer support.