Police Accused of Inaction As Anti-CCP Activists Assaulted in San Francisco

Human rights activists this week accused the San Francisco Police Department of standing by while loyalists of the Chinese Communist Party assaulted demonstrators who had gathered to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s recent visit to the United States.

Anti-CCP protesters, who rallied on behalf of freedoms in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, were outnumbered by pro-Beijing counterparts, many of whom were allegedly bused in from other parts of the country.

Xi arrived in San Francisco last week for the annual APEC summit and met U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time in a year amid tensions between Washington and Beijing on multiple fronts. On the street of the Golden Gate city, however, dissidents and other opponents of China’s ruling party said they faced three days of on-and-off violence.

Fengsuo Zhou, executive director of the group Human Rights in China, told Newsweek that U.S.-based pro-CCP groups and their leaders organized transportation for hundreds of residents to travel from New York and other states in order to greet Xi and carry out counterprotests.

In a newsletter published on Monday, Zhou’s group shared footage allegedly showing a clash between demonstrators from both sides. Newsweek couldn’t independently verify scenes of violent reportedly taking place outside Xi’s hotel.

Allen Chen, an attorney and member of the Chinese diaspora political group the Democracy Party of China, told Newsweek that he and several others learned of associates who had been targeted by CCP supporters on November 16. While en route to their location, Chen said they were ambushed, too.

Chen said he was attacked with pepper spray in the scuffle. When police arrived, officers separated the groups but made no effort to identify perpetrators, he said.

The activist said he did not see the police arrest one pro-Beijing demonstrator. Both he and Zhou accused authorities of offering Xi’s supporters extra leniency during the high-profile visit.

The SFPD, California Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s office, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry didn’t return separate requests for comment before publication.

Zhou, a former student…