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Audible protests blared over President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s welcome to Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, at the White House Thursday night, at times drowning out the state dinner event.
“Free Hong Kong,” “Xi Jinping, you’re not welcome” and “Freedom for political prisoners” were among the chants shouted.
Protesters gathered across the Northern portico in Lafeyette Park to stand against the communist leader’s visit, during which the two leaders are expected to discuss artificial intelligence and intellectual property theft, trade practices and rare-earth minerals.
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The chants could be heard clearly before the Marine Corps band began playing and remained audible, though less prominently, throughout the performance.
Tibetan, Uyghur, Hong Kong democracy, Chinese pro-democracy and Falun Gong groups gathered in Washington this week to call attention to the Chinese government’s alleged human rights abuses.
President Trump has previously referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as “Pooh Bear,” a nickname rooted in an online meme comparing Xi to Winnie-the-Pooh. Protesters leaned into the comparison Thursday, dressing as the cartoon bear during a demonstration outside the White House.
The dinner welcomed 134 guests, including the two leaders and prominent tech CEOs, such as Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Lisa Su of AMD, Tim Cook of Apple, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sundar Pichai of Google and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
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Many demonstrators have called for the release of political prisoners. So has House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has called for the release of Dr. Gulshan Abbas.
Abbas is a retired Uyghur doctor who disappeared from her home in China Sept. 10, 2018. Chinese officials later sentenced her to 20 years in prison on terrorism-related charges that her family calls fabricated.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House to see if her release, or others, are on the negotiating table during this visit.
Famous American tenor Christopher Macchio, who was featured at the Republican National Convention in Dallas a few weeks ago, will entertain for the evening along with military musicians from the Army and the Marine Corps.
After the dinner, both presidents are expected to retire for the evening ahead of their visit to the National Archives Friday.
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