CHICAGO—When Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Chicago Thursday, he was met by Chinese students fanatically waving their nation's flag and Tibetans passionately protesting his visit.
Their journeys merged, and as Tibetan and Chinese groups faced each other on bustling Michigan Avenue in Chicago, they chanted their opposing convictions amongst police whistles and honking buses: "We Love China!" and "Shame, Shame, China, Shame!"
Six buses packed with Chinese UW-Madison students and community members caravanned from the Memorial Union to Chicago to welcome President Hu Jintao.
That same morning, one bus filled with Tibetans from UW and the Madison area also drove to Chicago to protest President Hu Jintao's human rights policies and the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
A member of the UW-Madison Chinese Student and Scholars Association said the Chinese government paid for the Chinese students' transportation to the event, but he did not specify whether the attendees were paid in addition to busing costs.
David Liu, president of UWCSSA, said the Chinese government did not pay for the UW-Madison students to attend the event.
Similar allegations have been made at University of Maryland and Northwestern University. However, some claim that Chinese students at those schools were paid $20-$80 in addition to food and transportation costs.
Liu said since UWCSSA did not publicize who paid for the transportation, many people assumed the Chinese government paid for it. He said the trip was funded from UWCSSA funds and another local Chinese organization, Madison Area Chinese Community Organization.
"We are very excited about [President Hu Jintao] visiting the United States," said Liu. "If we Chinese students demonstrated passion when Obama comes to visit, we share the same passion when the president of our own country comes to visit."
UW-Madison student and Students For A Free Tibet member Tsering Yama alleged the Chinese government paid students nationwide to attend the event in order to present an image of nationalism to the rest of the world.
"The Chinese government wants others to feel like China is united," Yama said.
Other Chinese students from schools such as Michigan State and Illinois Institute of Technology also said they were not paid and that the Chinese student group at their school funded their trips.
Some protestors said the Chinese would not admit they were paid to attend the event out of fear of repercussions from the Chinese Communist Party.
"Even if their reasoning says it's not the right thing to do, yet another reasoning tells them this is exactly what you must do or you'll lose your job in the future," said Dechen Choedon-Tashi, a Tibetan from Sun Prairie who fled her home country in response to the Chinese occupation. "You are not in the good books of the Communist Chinese Party."
