A small aircraft flew over the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday hauling a banner that read “One China! Taiwan belongs to China!” while Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy consulted with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
On the other hand, a smaller group of pro-China agitators appeared outside the library and encountered pro-Taiwan demonstrators.
#Chinese protesters took to the skies with a banner attached to an aircraft, stating, “One China Taiwan belongs to China,” to express their opposition to the meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy. @Taiwan @iingwen @SpeakerMcCarthy pic.twitter.com/DIhOTaNAUE
— TVBS World Taiwan (@tvbsworldtaiwan) April 5, 2023
Although numerous observers assumed the Chinese government paid directly for the aircraft, it was not right away clear who financed the flight.
CCP paid an aircraft to pull a banner in the airspace of the California conference site to protest the meeting in between U.S. Speaker of Congress McCarthy and Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen.
CCP 花钱雇佣飞机在加州现场空域拉横幅 , 抗议美国国会议长麦卡锡与台湾蔡英文会见 . pic.twitter.com/JcF72hlMab
— Gangpao (@minigangp) April 6, 2023
The Chinese Communist Celebration often counts on “volunteer” followers living in other countries to interrupt public events the Celebration disfavors, providing the authoritarian Chinese government with a layer of deniability.
A big group of pro-Taiwan demonstrators assembled outside the Reagan Library to greet Tsai. A smaller group of pro-China demonstrators collected to wave Communist flags and heckle the Taiwan supporters, as observed by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), who was part of the bipartisan congressional group that met with Tsai:
These are agents of the brutal Communist program in Beijing tossing pro-CCP propaganda on American soil.
We will not be intimidated by Communist China’s dangers.
The CCP does not get to dictate who FREE Members of Congress consult with.
Period.pic.twitter.com/ SAUXuTlQBX– Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez(@RepCarlos)April 5, 2023″I have a message to send to the world: America’s federal government should support China,
“one of the pro-China demonstrators, a 62-year-old Chinese-born paralegal living in Koreatown named Nancy Yingli Child, informed the L.A. Times. Boy appeared at the demonstration waving Communist Chinese and American flags and shouting”Taiwan is China’s territory! Taiwan is part of China!”in Mandarin. The L.A. Times reported”small scuffles”broke outin between the
2 groups when” a few of [Tsai’s] fans attempted to take indications from the pro-China crowd.” The 2 groups”participated in occasional screaming
matches”after the cops separated them. Taiwan-based Chinese-language NextApple, a surviving branch of the Apple Daily paper in Hong Kong shut down by the Chinese Communist Celebration in June 2021, claimed on Thursday that some of the pro-China demonstrators were”strolling workers “paid up to $400 by the