Thousands Welcome Chinese President Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the November 13, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- THOUSANDS WELCOME CHINESE PRESIDENT Boston Although the national media tried to give the opposite impression, Chinese President Jiang Zemin was greeted in Boston Nov. 1 by thousands of people waving Chinese flags, singing the Chinese national anthem, and shouting "One China, only one China," as his motorcade brought him to Harvard University, where he was to deliver a speech. This incredible outpouring of pro-China sentiment was organized by Chinese students and community leaders in the Boston area who were fed up with the vicious China-bashing that had been going on during Jiang's tour of the United States. It was the biggest demonstration at Harvard since the Vietnam War era. Although anti-China protesters were present, they had nowhere near the numbers predicted by the media and expected by the organizers. The pro-China forces vastly outnumbered them. The crowds greeting Jiang didn't get much national media coverage, however. To report that thousands of people turned out in solidarity with the People's Republic of China would have been too discordant a note to strike after a week of unremitting anti-China propaganda. It also might have made some people think twice about the whole anti-China barrage. Like why human rights supporters allied themselves with dictator Chiang Kai-shek's political heirs in Taiwan and the feudal slavelords of Tibet. And what possible good could come of U.S. labor leaders joining ultra-right wingers to denounce a country where workers and peasants made a revolution. At Harvard, at least, the other side got its say. As the car carrying President Jiang approached Harvard Square, members of the Boston branch of Workers World Party stood in the street with a bright red banner that read "Long Live the People's Republic of China." The Chinese president acknowledged the banner with a wave. Hundreds of Chinese people stopped to thank the Workers World members for their support and solidarity, and to pose for pictures in front of the banner. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-11.07.97-03:59:00-31831