By Topden Tsering

A sea of hand-held Tibetan national flags fluttered overhead. Bobbing amid them were a dozen balloon skeletons, “Remember Me? Remember 1989 Martial Law?” scrawled on their chests. Pumping the air next to placards demanding an end to China’s occupation of Tibet was a forest of angry fists. Below them - outside the Hilton Hotel May 3 as China’s Vice President wrapped up his two-day San Francisco visit - over 400 protestors and their supporters yelled, “Hu Jintao: Go to Hell.”

Right across the street, behind the baton-wielding city police contingent facing Tibet demonstrators were some 100 Chinese men and women in dark suits. They waved China’s red flags and shouted at the Tibetans, “You are Losers”, “Tibet is China”.

Tenzin Choephel, a 20-year-old Concord student, and his friend tore away from the Tibetan crowd and bolted into the engulfing downtown traffic. Minutes later they returned with a Tibetan national flag the size of a theater screen. A renewed vigor passed through the demonstration. “Shame, Shame,” gasped in broken English 61-year-old Ama Tsering Youdon, half-reduced to tears, almost stepping over the sidewalk.

Half-hour into the confrontation, behind the sea of wavering Chinese flags appeared a proud Tibetan flag. Holding it aloft was the San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) president, Topden Tsering. Immediately upon him pounced a horde of enraged Chinese, some trying to snatch from his hands the Tibetan flag, others attempting physical assaults. A shrill bout of sloganeering rose from Tibetan protestors on the other side, the mass of their bodies threatening to burst asunder the police barricades.

“I don’t like you, pal,” barked an officer into Tsering’s face as he grabbed the Tibetan youth leader by his collars. “This is the third time you have done it today. One more of that stupid thing and I’ll shove your ass into jail.”

The previous day, China’s soon-to-be President clinked toasts with the city’s elite political and business circles during a reception by Mayor Willie Brown. Over five hundred Tibetan protestors shouted slogans outside the hotel. Among them were prancing protestors in skeleton costumes. Posters of the Chinese leader, his face disfigured, or added with a pair of horn and fang looked out into the street. “China: Want Suicide Bombers?” read a placard.

“We clearly see on the hands of Hu Jintao the blood of hundreds of Tibetans he had ordered killed and imprisoned during the late 1980s as Party Secretary of Tibet Autonomous Region,” said Tenzin Choedhen, Northern America representative to the parliament of exile Tibetan government. “At the same time, we feel his chances at China’s paramount leadership offers him a unique opportunity to bring fresh approach in reconciliation towards the Tibet issue.”

Mr. Choedhen called upon China to release all Tibetan political prisoners, specifically the 13-year-old 11th Panchen Lama, and urged Beijing leadership to enter into negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“Casualty of China’s over 40 years’ occupation of Tibet is not just the 1.2 million Tibetans killed. No less dead are the livings inside Tibet today, who walk about as mere ghosts, stripped of that most sacrosanct boon of life: freedom and dignity. No less dead are us Tibetans gathered here, uprooted from the land of our origin, victims of exile’s everyday oppression,” Topden Tsering, President of San Francisco-based Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) explained. “We are outraged, therefore, that America, the great defender of democracy, is playing host to this master of all terror regimes.”

Protestors for Tibetan independence dogged the visiting Chinese Vice President throughout all itineraries during the San Francisco stop over. Despite the tight secrecy and security, the Chinese leader stumbled upon Tibetan protestors up close on at least two occasions. Students For Free Tibet’s (SFT) Thupten Tsering shouted “Free Tibet”, only inches away from Hu Jintao on May 2. The next day, Tibetan Association of Northern California’s Ugyen Tsering and some 50 other protestors found only a street separating them from the Chinese leader.

“We sure gave him a taste of Tibetan protests to carry with him as souvenir,” remarked the Vice President of Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC). Earlier in the morning, he and some 40 protestors had followed Hu Jintao to the Intel headquarters in San Jose, over an hour’s drive from San Francisco.

The emotional face off between the Tibetans and Chinese on May 3 came to an end with the Chinese calling off soon after Hu Jintao left for the airport. “They have admitted defeat,” beamed Dhondup Tsering, former General Secretary of San Francisco TYC. “They surely must have been paid for this.”

As Hu Jintao’s motorcade snaked its way to airport through San Francisco streets, up into the sky soared the dozen balloon skeletons. It was not hard to imagine them shadowing China’s future president all the way to Beijing.

Acknowledgement: The demonstrations were jointly organized by San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC) and Bay Area Friends of Tibet (BART) without whose Giovanni Vassalli would have been difficult the smooth execution of all the planning that went into them. Instrumental too was the contribution of SFT’s Thupten Tsering who had personally flown in with skeleton costumes at such short notice.

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