Several Asian American organizations are organizing a large protest at the APEC Conference in San Francisco on November 15 and 16, 2023.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 6, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Several Asian American organizations are organizing a large protest at the APEC Conference in San Francisco on November 15 and 16, 2023. APEC, or Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that aims to promote “the well-being of all people and achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth” throughout the region.

In an invitation letter, the organizing committee wrote of universal human rights as intrinsic for such well-being and called for a protest against the Chinese and Vietnamese delegations. It stated, “while we wish for Asia's economy to develop and the vast majority of the people there to participate in that development, our stance is not to accept, welcome or collaborate with those elements which suppress those universal values and commit treason, crimes against humanity, even genocide against their own people.”

This year’s APEC gathering is expected to bring Xi Jinping and Vo Van Thuong, authoritarian leaders of one-party communist China and Vietnam, respectively. Their presence comes at a sensitive time when the United Nations marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and victims commemorate more than 100 million lives lost at the hands of communism.

This is also the first time that Xi, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, visits the US since the COVID-19 pandemic which has taken more than a million American lives. The fentanyl crisis, also originating in China, is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. According to the latest report by the Department of Defense, the People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the CCP, is targeting the US with 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030. Many analysts agreed that America’s interests are being threatened by the CCP’s coercive economic tactics, hegemonic ambition, and a disregard for international law.

Speaking for the United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, one of the nine organizations mobilizing the protest, Mr. Jimmy Phan said, “the Vietnamese communist authorities are not reliable as partner. They are free riders and back stabbers, as evidenced from their recent kowtowing behaviors toward China and Russia, right after the elevation to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the US. Their interest is entirely self-serving and dangerous to American interest.”

The protest is taking place on November 15, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and November 16, 2023, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. The location of the protest is near the Moscone West Convention Center, at the corner of 4th and Howard, in front of the Children’s Creativity Museum.

The letter ended in the words of Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Jimmy Phan (Coordinator)
United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California
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