‘Xi, You’re Not Welcome’: As Trump Hosts China’s Leader, Thousands Protest in Washington

On September 24, more than 3,000 Tibetans gathered in Washington to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, in what organizers described as the largest-ever Tibetan rally in North America. The rally was organized by Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) and supported by other Tibetan activist organizations.

The protesters came with demands that they said should be part of the China-U.S. relationship: that Trump raise human rights with Xi, that China release political and religious prisoners, and that Tibetans be allowed to preserve their language and culture. The group also demanded the repeal of China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, which took effect in July and promotes what Beijing calls a shared sense of identity among China’s 56 ethnic groups. Tibetan activists say the law further advances Beijing’s efforts to assimilate Tibetans into Chinese identity. Chinese authorities say the law protects minority rights while promoting ethnic unity.

“Human rights should not be left outside of their talks,” said Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet. “The Tibetans, the Uyghurs, the Hong Kongers, the Taiwanese, we want to make sure our voices are also heard there.”

The demonstration unfolded as Xi made his first state visit to Washington in more than a decade. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed him to the White House for talks that touched on AI, trade, and other issues, while the two governments were also dealing with disputes over Taiwan, Iran and rare earths. Trump hosted Xi at a state dinner on the evening of September 24.

Outside, Tibetan protesters marched through the capital carrying Tibetan flags and signs reading “Xi Jinping is guilty of genocide” and “Tibet was never a part of China.” By the end of the day, the demonstration had expanded into a coalition that included Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Chinese democracy, Taiwanese, Burmese, Falun Gong, and Chinese Christian groups, all people that have suffered under the Chinese Communist Party.

The rally began at about 9 a.m. outside the Chinese Embassy, where protesters gathered before marching toward the U.S. Capitol. Police were deployed around the demonstration as the crowd assembled. The protesters then moved through Washington, with Connecticut Avenue closed to accommodate the march. The crowd passed through Dupont Circle before arriving at the Capitol, where several speakers addressed the demonstrators.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, joined the rally. McGovern called for human rights to be included in Trump’s discussions with Xi.

“No Xi in D.C. without human rights,” McGovern told the crowd.

He also criticized Republican lawmakers, who he said had declined to join efforts urging the administration to press China on human rights. “Are they afraid of Donald Trump? Are they afraid he’ll be offended if they ask him to ask Xi to release prisoners of conscience?” McGovern said.

Pelosi also spoke in support of the protesters, calling attention to human rights in Tibet and urging the release of prisoners of conscience.

For many Tibetan protesters, Thursday’s demonstration was also shaped by the death of Lobga Rangzen, a longtime Tibetan independence activist who died after self-immolating outside the United Nations in New York on July 2. Rangzen, 52, had called for Tibetan independence and unity in a final message before setting himself on fire.

Jigme Ugen, president of the Tibetan National Congress, said the size of the demonstration showed that the Tibetan independence movement remained active.

“This is the biggest gathering, as such, to not just protest Xi Jinping, but also to tell the world and the U.S. government that the Tibetan movement, and the call for Tibetan independence, is still very much alive,” Ugen said. 

Tsering Chomphel, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, who traveled from India for the protest, said people had come from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Vermont, and Toronto. “This is the first-ever mass gathering in North America. Whenever Xi Jinping or a Chinese delegation visits, TYC will be there to make sure our voices are heard.”

Seventeen Tibetans had set off on foot from the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 17, walking through Philadelphia before reaching Washington on the evening of September 23 – the same day Xi arrived. Rangzen Dolkar, one of the walkers, said the journey was meant to raise awareness about Tibet and Pawo Lobga Rangzen’s death.

Pawo is an honorary title given to any individual who has sacrificed their lives through self-immolation to bring attention to Tibet’s situation. 

“I am a mother of two kids, and I left my kids home. We all took off from work and left on this journey,” she said. “People stop us on the way and ask us what we’re doing because they see the flag. It gives us an opportunity to speak about Tibet and what Pawo Lobga Rangzen sacrificed his life for.”

After the rally at the Capitol, the protestors marched to Franklin Park, half a mile from the White House, where speakers from the Uyghur, Taiwanese, Burmese, and Hong Kong communities addressed the crowd. 

Misran Dolan, president of the Uyghur American Association, framed the gathering as a common demand for political and religious freedom. “Free the Uyghurs. Free the Tibetans. Keep Taiwan free. Keep Hong Kong free. Keep China free,” Dolan told the crowd.

“All of us here have moved away from our homelands,” he said. “And now we’re here in the United States … to exercise those rights – freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion.” About 200 members of the Uyghur community attended, according to Dolan.

The gathering also included Chinese democracy activists. About 50 members of the Democratic Party of China traveled from Los Angeles, according to Zheng Zhou, a member of the group.

“We want Xi Jinping to stop persecuting people. We want him to free Jimmy Lai, Ding Jiaxi,” said Zhou. Lai, the billionaire founder of Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy newspaper, and a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this February after being convicted of conspiracy to commit sedition and collusion with foreign forces. Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, had urged the CCP to grant him humanitarian parole calling the sentence unjust and tragic, 

Daniel Zhou, a Chinese Christian affiliated with an underground church – churches that operate outside China’s state-controlled religious system and whose members can face detention and other restrictions from authorities – spoke about the persecution of Christians in China.

“Our church leaders have to stay in Chinese jails, leaving their families praying and crying at home, just because they wanted to practice their religion peacefully in China,” Zhou said.

Cynthia Sun, a senior researcher at the Falun Dafa Information Center, said her friends from the United States had family members killed in Chinese prison through forced organ harvesting. “When they went to see their dead parents at the mortuary, their bodies were split open, there were stitches, and they were missing a heart or a kidney,” she said. 

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that emerged in China in the 1990s and was banned by Chinese authorities in 1999. The Chinese government has been accused of forcibly harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. In 2019, the China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal, concluded that forced organ harvesting has occurred in China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners were likely the main source of organs. 

Sun described the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners as something that had followed her throughout her life. 

“I was born in July 1999, the month and year that the persecution began,” she said. “When I graduated high school, I thought the persecution would end by the time I got to college. But now I’m in grad school. I’m engaged, I’m getting married, and the persecution is still going on.”

“I don’t want this to be the burden of my children, my grandchildren,” she said.

For the Tibetan organizers, the rally was not simply a call for another statement from Washington.

“Tibetans are not looking for a statement at this point,” Ugen said. “The U.S. government already has enough laws that have been passed by Congress, and all they need to do is to actually stand on those.” In 2020, Trump signed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 into law, which strengthened U.S. policy on Tibet.

Later in the evening, protesters marched toward the White House.

Police had erected barricades near 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, separating the demonstrators from another group of people carrying Chinese flags and supporting Xi. The two groups shouted at each other from opposite sides of the barricades. Tibetan protesters waved Tibetan flags and chanted as the other group shouted back across the street. The confrontation grew increasingly loud, but there was no physical altercation.

Inside the White House, Xi was attending the state dinner hosted by Trump. Outside, the opposing groups remained separated by police barricades.

For Ugen, the demonstration was ultimately about making sure Tibet was not left out of the China-U.S. conversation.

“The basics of the conversation is beyond Taiwan, AI, trade,” Ugen said. “We are telling the world that if there’s justice in the world, it should come through Tibet.”