Chinese community protests Pelosi visit

Hundreds of members from the Chinese community in San Francisco gathered on Sunday in the city's Chinatown to protest US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan, criticizing her for endangering the peace between China and the United States that has lasted for five decades.

Protesters held signs that read "Peace, Not War with China", "Pelosi's Visit Provokes Hate" and "Stop China Bashing, Stop Anti-Asian Hate", and chanted "China is not our enemy!"

The demonstration was hosted by several community groups and supported by other communities and anti-war groups such as Pivot to Peace, ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace.

"We're opposed to all US government officials' visits to Taiwan because that's a violation of the Shanghai Communique. And it's a violation of the agreements that we've had with China, which has kept the peace for the last 50 years," Michael Wong, vice-president of Veterans For Peace's Chapter 69 in San Francisco, told China Daily.

"If we crossed the red lines, then we risk escalating confrontation which could easily lead to a war. And once the war breaks out, it's hard to control it and it could easily escalate step by step up even into the nuclear level."

Following Pelosi's visit earlier this month, a second US congressional delegation led by Senator Ed Markey visited Taiwan. China conducted military exercises and training, including live fire drills, in the waters around Taiwan in response to Pelosi's visit.

"They (China) did that to show strength and give us a warning without actually provoking a war. So in other words, it was a very measured response," Wong said.

Chinese community leaders noted that Taiwan has been a province of China since ancient times, and the US is moving it toward independence from China step by step.

Fred Zou, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance for China's Peaceful Reunification, USA, told the crowd at the rally that Pelosi's visit does not benefit Taiwan, but will bring disaster to the people in Taiwan.

Blatant violation

"The visit is a blatant violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques. It hurts the cross-Straits relations and sends a wrong signal to the 'Taiwan independence' separatists," Zou said.

Calling Pelosi "the most prominent congressional cheerleader for confrontation and war", peace activists have launched two petitions, one calling for Pelosi to step down as speaker of the House and the other telling Pelosi that the Taiwan visit is not worth risking World War III.

"Her provocative visit to Taiwan has unleashed an unprecedented crisis in US-China relations, with every possibility of leading to a military conflict that could culminate in a nuclear war," said Savannah K, the campaign initiator, in the petition.

"Moreover, stirring up international turmoil while Americans suffer at home from inflation, homelessness, a continuing pandemic and lack of adequate healthcare is immoral and negligent," she continued. "Instead of focusing on problems like these, and safeguarding－rather than sabotaging－the necessary cooperation with China to prevent climate collapse, Pelosi has risked global peace for highly dubious reasons."

Wong said the US and China, both powerful countries, have to live together and coexist. "We cannot keep pushing China into a corner," he said. "We want to prevent what happened in Ukraine and Russia from happening in Asia."