Protesters Gather During Chinese President's Visit
Hundreds of protesters from various causes gathered across the street from the White House to protest President Hu's visit. We bring you some of the sounds and voices of the demonstrations.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
As the two presidents talked, a white privacy screen set up around the White House portico blocked the view across the street. There, hundreds of demonstrators gathered. A handful were there to support President Hu, but the majority from various ethnic and religious groups were there to air their complaints about China's policies.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
U: (unintelligible) human rights.
CROWD: (unintelligible) human rights.
BLOCK: My name is Mustafa Rusi(ph). I'm from East Turkestan but currently, I live in Virginia. We came out here to support our human rights. And kids like these right here, they live in fear because they arrest them, they torture them, they execute them (unintelligible).
CROWD: What do we want? Freedom.
BLOCK: My name is Mindy(ph), last name, G-E, Mindy Ge. Yeah. We come here. I am Falun Gong practitioners to ask for stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
BLOCK: My name is Shu(ph), law student at University of Virginia and we are here to welcome our president, Hu Jintao.
CROWD: Bow down, Hu Jintao.
BLOCK: My name is Mark Kao(ph). We are here to protest China's policy against Taiwan and also Tibet and East Turkestan. I think we need a dialogue, you know, U.S. need a dialogue with China. But we need to let Mr. Obama know that the current policy is not acceptable.
U: Free Tibet. Free Tibet.
BLOCK: Sound from demonstrations today outside the White House.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.