Hundreds of protesters waved signs and badgered men in suits headed toward an historic Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Wednesday
Hundreds of protesters waved signs and badgered men in suits headed toward an historic Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Wednesday in San Francisco that President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom will attend and that demonstrators argue will do more harm than good for working people.
Police in riot gear pushed up against a crowd of demonstrators representing workers’ rights, environmental and other causes gathered at Fifth and Mission streets trying to prevent attendees from entering the conference at nearby Moscone Center.
“The goal is to try to shut down meetings,” said Donna Denina of Seattle, one of the No to APEC protest organizers. “They’re going to talk about trade deals that are not good for people or the planet. What they’re doing impacts billions of people around the world. There’s a lot of collusion between government and corporate interests, not in line with working people. We don’t have a seat at the table, they shouldn’t either.”
The APEC Economic Leaders’ Week, which runs through Friday, is the largest gathering of world leaders in the city since 1945. Along with heads of state from member countries, including President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, about 1,200 CEOs and nearly 30,000 delegates from governments and organizations are expected for the event running through Thursday.
Bay Area companies engage in substantial trade with APEC members: The San Jose metropolitan area exported $15 billion in goods to APEC countries last year, and the San Francisco metropolitan area exported $21 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
It is the second major protest of the event organized by Bay Area group No to APEC, an umbrella for dozens of activist organizations, mostly from the region.
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Protestors clash with riot police as thousands descend on San Francisco to ‘shut down’ APEC summit as motorcade of 10 vehicles gets stuck in front of barricade
- The demonstrators tried to block people from attending the summit
- They are protesting the war in Gaza and the oil industry
- The CEOs of Microsoft , Google and Salesforce are some of the high-profile guests at the summit on Wednesday
Hundreds of anti-oil, pro-Palestine protesters clashed with riot police outside the APEC summit in San Francisco ahead of president Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping‘s widely anticipated meeting on Wednesday.
A motorcade of around ten vehicles was stuck in front of a human barricade as police officers in riot gear tried to control the crowd of demonstrators on Fifth Street near Mission.
The demonstrators, wearing yellow vests, tried to block people from attending the CEO event at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum but were unsuccessful as attendees entered through an alleyway.
‘We won’t allow genocide to be normalized,’ an organizer with the No APEC Coalition told the the San Francisco Standard.
The protesters chanted: ‘Biden, Biden telling lies, you don’t care if the planes dies’ and ‘shut down APEC.’
The protesters have been yelling at summit attendants as they head inside the event for CEOs, telling them not to enter.
The CEOs of Microsoft, Google, ExxonMobil and Salesforce are some of the high-profile guests at the summit today.
Meanwhile Biden and Jingping are scheduled to meet at the Filoli country estate in San Mateo county, about 25 miles from San Francisco.
The two leaders, who last spoke a year ago, are hoping to stabilize U.S.-China relations after a period of tumult. Biden has said he is also prepared to confront his counterpart on difficult issues such as trade, Beijing’s burgeoning relationship with Iran and human rights concerns.
The outcome of the talks between two leaders who have known each other for decades could have far-reaching implications for an anxious world that is grappling with global economic cross currents from the pandemic, wars in the Middle East and Europe, upcoming elections in Taiwan and more.
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China’s Xi Jinping Arrives in San Francisco to Fanfare, Protests
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco ahead of a closely watched meeting with President Joe Biden and a whirlwind visit to the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
The Chinese leader touched down at San Francisco International Airport shortly before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and was greeted by a crowd of hundreds of supporters and high-level U.S. officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Surrounding the St. Regis, a luxury hotel in Downtown San Francisco where Xi is staying, banners and balloons hailing the Chinese leader’s arrival stretched for blocks. As scores of law enforcement officers oversaw a fenced-off area around the hotel, pro-China demonstrators deafened the area with megaphones and patriotic anthems.
A group of anti-communist party protestors had gathered earlier in the afternoon, but were soon after blockaded by San Francisco police and later dispersed from the area. Observers flooded the street as officials unlocked the gates after Xi’s arrival, but were promptly cordoned back behind the fenced perimeter by police in riot gear.
This is Xi’s first trip to San Francisco since 1985, when he was a small-town Communist Party chief.
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Build the Wall! …Around San Francisco for Asian-Pacific Economic Summit
These Democrats are essentially locking the dignitaries up to keep them from discovering just how bad and dangerous the town is – and they say that border fencing doesn’t work’
This surely must be from the “you can’t make this stuff up” department: San Francisco is building walls around the area where the the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit is going in – for security.
“The sidewalks in the APEC zone, including sticky and urine-perfumed Van Ness Avenue, have been silver polished on the Eve of APEC,” Sebastian, a San Francisco resident and friend to the Globe told us. “Walking along Van Ness Ave today was like walking along twice-a-day-mobbed Orchard Road in Singapore.”
Oh the injustice of the walls… how inhumane… walls are ineffective… the wall is bigoted… the wall is creating an humanitarian crisis… the wall is destroying ecosystems… the wall is unethical…
We’ve watched all of the insincere hand wringing and heard all of the reasons walls don’t work – until Democrats need a wall to keep the riff-raff out.
Sebastian takes photos daily of his city – this is what it usually looks like:
The City of San Francisco even posted rules for residents on its website: Prepare for APEC if you live in a security zone.
“They are essentially locking the dignitaries up to keep them from discovering just how bad and dangerous the town is. And these are the Democrats who say that border fencing doesn’t work,” he said. “The same leftists that claim that fences and walls do not work and are inhumane are the same leftists that live behind fences and walls.”
“Now these same leftists are erecting fencing and walls to keep law abiding people out of an area; but somehow don’t claim that these fences and walls don’t work or are inhumane.”
Fences have been installed around the Fairmont Hotel where President Joe Biden will stay during APEC.
“My Democrat and Republican friends who live in the Brocklebank Apartments featured in the movie Vertigo and my late SF Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen lived which is next to the Fairmont Hotel, are upset about the fencing as they have to go through security checks from Nov.14-18,” Sebastian said. “They weren’t informed about the ‘walls’ ahead of time.”
Preparation for APEC is hardly being executed with military precision if residents were not prepared in advance.
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