Greeters for Xi Jinping’s arrival in San Francisco pocketed hundreds of dollars.
SAN FRANCISCO—Free hotel, free flight, free food: The Chinese Consulate in San Francisco hasn’t been tightfisted when it comes to the first visit to the United States in six years by the leader of Chinese communist regime.
Greeters who were on hand for Xi Jinping’s arrival in San Francisco pocketed hundreds of dollars along with an all-expenses-paid trip that brought some of them from the other side of the United States, according to some participants, observers, and screenshots of social media conversations ahead of the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Many pro-Beijing demonstrators donned red caps or uniforms while waving red flags, saturating the blockaded streets with the color closely associated with communism. At least one person—a woman donning a black dress who was eating a boxed lunch while standing with her back against a building wall—was carrying a red tote bag, which suggests that she has ties to the Chinese Consulate in New York, according to a dissident who had trailed them.
There are more clues in the attire, the dissident said.
“Anyone with a red cap came from New York—I followed them from behind,” Qiao Jie told NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, adding that these people were “hired” for the job, raking in—by her account—as much as $200 a day.
“They are also misled,” she said.
The woman, who also lives in New York, was part of a small group of petitioners holding a banner and staging a demonstration in front of the St. Regis hotel, where Mr. Xi will be staying during the week as he joins the closely watched meeting with President Joe Biden. As the woman spoke, swarms of Beijing supporters drew near, drowning out the petitioners’ voices with chants of “welcome.”
Many sources point to money as the motivation for their enthusiasm.
A recording shared with The Epoch Times showed a man from China’s southeastern Fujian Province in his 60s, acknowledging that he was coming to San Francisco at no cost to himself. Screenshots circulating online also show a leader from the Chinese student group—the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at the University of Southern California—informing senior association members about the covered trip opportunity that the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles had just announced.
By Eva Fu
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