- By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer |
- Nov 16, 2023 Updated 2 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)
The APEC summit was in full swing in San Francisco on Wednesday, and its protestors were out in full force.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on Wednesday, which also marked the first day of the forum’s CEO Summit, as demonstrators gathered en masse across The City.
The No to APEC Coalition, a bloc of 150 organizations opposed to the 21 member economies’ partnerships, began gathering at Powell Street Station around 7 a.m. in an effort to disrupt attendees’ entry into the CEO Summit. A protest of Xi’s arrival in San Francisco began outside of the Chinese Consulate General at 9:30 a.m.
Both groups sought to bring attention to the issues and interests that drive them: climate change and anti-imperialism, among others, in the case of the No to APEC Coalition; and China’s human-rights record in the case of activists gathered outside of the consulate building.
“Nations and corporations are deciding the fate of 40% of the world economy with zero input from people who are impacted by this decision,” said Ilonka, a No to APEC demonstrator who declined to provide her last name to The Examiner. “This is a deeply undemocratic process that is not ratified by any elected official and then does not include the voices of people most impacted.”
Demonstrators with the coalition ultimately made their way over to 5th and Mission streets and set up human blockades along the roads and sidewalks to prevent summit attendees from crossing the intersection. No to APEC organizer Rhonda Ramiro, said other affiliated groups gathered at intersections near Moscone Center with the stated goal of “preventing them from going in and shutting down their deals.”
Credentialed attendees who attempted to cross the 5th and Mission intersection were met with boos, chants of “shame!” and calls to “go around!” from the protestors. Most turned around and left.
Police said one attendee, 40-year-old San Francisco resident Michael Davies, made physical contact with a woman amid an altercation with protestors. Her head struck one of the metal gates erected around Moscone Center, bloodying her mouth, according to an eyewitness who spoke with The Examiner.
The woman told police she briefly blacked out, feeling pain in her jaw as she came to and bled profusely from her mouth. She was taken away for medical treatment. Police arrested Davies, taking him to San Francisco County Jail for aggravated assault.
Security around Moscone Center was heightened in anticipation of the protests, with black metal gates keeping demonstrators out of the conference zone. The San Francisco Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department worked under the direction of the U.S. Secret Service as part of The City’s first National Security Special Event. San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said last week the department was “prepared to take action” in the event of violence or property damage.
Wednesday’s No to APEC protest was otherwise peaceful as it petered out before the afternoon, with the coalition’s wide-ranging interests reflected in demonstrators’ motivations.
“I have just seen The City being suspiciously cleaned up just in time for the world’s greatest meeting of supervillains that we’ve seen in a long time,” said Ian Hewitt, a mental health counselor with Service Employees International Union 1021. “We’re all kind of taking a break from committing or condoning cheerleading war crimes to sell out workers and the planet.”
Loa Niumeitolu said she was protesting on behalf of smaller nations such as Fiji, Tahiti and the Cook Islands, that can attend the summit as “observers” rather than full-fledged member economies. She preferred placing the countries under the “Pasifika” umbrella, rather than the blanket Asian American Pacific Islander label that she said was “a colonial term that we did not choose.”
Smaller islands deserve a seat at the table, too, she said.
“The idea is because our islands are too small to be represented, we have to go underneath all the large Asian and Latin countries,” she said. “We are sovereign people with self-determination, and we should be represented.”
The concurrent Chinese consulate protest — organized by the Hong Kong Democracy Council, Students for a Free Tibet, and the Uyghur American Association — centered on the policies of the People’s Republic of China in Hong Kong, Tibet and East Turkestan.
“We want to alert the world and remind the world about the atrocious crimes committed by Xi Jinping, including the millions of Uyghurs that have been put into concentration camps, the thousands and hundreds of Tibetan children forced into boarding schools, and 1,700 political prisoners in Hong Kong,” said Anna Kwok, the executive director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council.
Kwok said she worried about the consulate protest “getting lost in the shuffle” on Wednesday, but she said the Biden-Xi meeting will help their cause remain in the spotlight.
“The world will be waiting for the results and the updates from these talks, and when the world talks about it, they also have to pay note to what we’re demanding,” she said of the talks, which took place Wednesday in Woodside. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Chinese diplomats sought to hold the meeting in a place where Xi wouldn’t see protestors.
Wednesday’s demonstrations followed protests in the leadup to APEC, most notably from pro-Palestinian organizers. Hundreds gathered outside of Biden’s Financial District fundraiser Tuesday night, many of whom carried signs calling for a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Suzanne Ali, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said her group’s opposition to APEC dovetailed with that of Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, arguing that “agreements that are made in forums like APEC (are) used in a way that is oppressive and exploitative of people globally.”
