History Tour Includes A Lesson in Democracy

In Philadelphia, Jiang Can't Avoid Protesters

Chinese President Jiang Zemin took another voyage through American history today in a visit to 265-year-old Independence Hall as part of a carefully staged series of photo opportunities around the country.

Entering the hall through the back door to avoid a boisterous crowd of about 150 demonstrators, Jiang spent four minutes inside a room where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written and signed. Outside, the crowd used bullhorns, gongs and chanting to voice opposition to China's treatment of Tibetans and its demands that Taiwan unite with China.

"Say `yes' to Taiwan, say `no' to China," the crowd chanted.

Philadelphia's mayor, Edward G. Rendell, said the Chinese canceled a planned side trip to see the Liberty Bell, housed in a small mausoleum 200 feet away, because of the demonstrations. Rendell said that the Chinese entourage had asked the Secret Service and police to move the protesters out of sight of the president, but Rendell turned down their request.

"We tried to explain to them politely that we can't do that in America," he said, adding that the only thing the police could do was to keep the demonstrations away from the hall itself, which sits on federal land.

Philadelphia is the third of four stops Jiang is making on a tour of American historic sites during the first state visit to the United States by a Chinese leader since the crackdown on student-led protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. Jiang also has visited Hawaii, where he paid homage to American servicemen killed at Pearl Harbor, and Colonial Williamsburg, in addition to holding a Washington summit meeting with President Clinton.

On Saturday, after a stop in New York on Friday to see former president George Bush and business leaders as well as open trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Jiang will speak at Harvard, the country's oldest university. On Sunday, he is scheduled to go to Los Angeles before returning to China either Sunday night or Monday morning.

Arriving in Philadelphia after spending the morning in Washington, Jiang was met first at Drexel University by Pennsylvania's governor, Republican Tom Ridge, and Rendell, a Democrat.

"He liked the football very much," Jiang shouted in a moment of genuine animation, speaking of his grandson who lived in Philadelphia while his father, Jiang's son, Jiang Mianheng, completed his doctorate at Drexel. At the campus, Jiang also met a former teacher of his from Shanghai, Yu H. Ku, and Hun H. Sun, who had taught his son here.

Shortly after dark he arrived at Independence Hall. The cavernous red-brick hall, built in 1732 and topped with a soaring bell tower, is known as the birthplace of the United States, according to Michael Arrington, a U.S. Park Service ranger who accompanied the Chinese president.

"This is the most important room in America," he said, standing with Jiang.

Jiang's visit to the East Coast sites is designed in part to emphasize similarities in Chinese and American history. In his remarks in Williamsburg, Jiang said the place was an important monument to "the struggle of the American people against colonialism and for national independence."

But few American politicians seem to accept the thesis. Clinton and Jiang disagreed openly at a news conference Wednesday.

"He's a nice man personally but I don't agree with him on everything," Rendell said, referring to the 71-year-old Chinese president. "I sympathize with the demonstrators. It was not an easy thing to do, to follow protocol and welcome him."

Rendell added, however, that "ignoring people can never bring about change." Jiang's reception in New York will not be as hospitable. Both New York's governor, George E. Pataki (R), and the mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), have announced they have no plans to meet the Chinese president. In Virginia on Tuesday, Gov. George Allen (R) also failed to appear at a luncheon in Williamsburg attended instead by his wife, Susan.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.