Xi Jinping, China’s current Vice President and the person most likely to take over as President after Hu Jintao, arrived in Washington DC today amidst protests from Tibetan freedom and rights groups that included a large banner hanging from the Arlington Memorial Bridge reading ‘Xi Jinping, Tibet Will Be Free’.
On his first brief visit to the United States, Xi has a date with President Obama and other high diplomats on Tuesday, Valentine’s Day. The visit comes in the middle of heightened crackdown and tension within occupied Tibet where so far, more than twenty Tibetans have set fire to themselves in protest against China’s repressive policies on the region. The Chinese government has, not surprisingly, responded with tight clampdown of much of the restive area and accused overseas rights groups and the Dalai Lama for inciting the unrest in Tibet.
Following China’s vetoing of the UN draft resolution regarding Syria that more or less encouraged Bashir al-Assad to carry on killing its citizens, and the urgent events taking place within Tibet, the question is whether the officials will bring up these issues with China’s next president tomorrow.
