While President Joe Biden was on his way to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday morning at the Filoli estate in Woodside, protesters gathered outside the Powell Street BART station in San Francisco and proceeded to block traffic entering the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

There was an early morning scuffle with police in front of the San Francisco Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets before the group divided and spread out to block the cars from entering the security zone for the conference.

  • Climate and labor protestors block an entrance to the APEC CEO Summit on Nov. 15, 2023. (Ruth Dusseault/BCN)
  • Climate and labor rights protestors block an entrance to the APEC conference in San Francisco on Nov. 15, 2023 (Ruth Dusseault/BCN)
  • Police in riot gear block the 5th street access route to the Moscone Center, during the APEC conference in San Francisco, Nov. 15, 2023 (Ruth Dusseault/BCN)

By mid-morning, the group formed human blockades at Mission and Fifth streets, New Montgomery Street as well as other entrances, but officials re-routed eventgoers in and out of the conference using alternative access points.

“We came to block the entrances to the APEC CEO Summit, because we are opposed to APEC and the policies it’s promoting,” said Rhonda Ramiro with the No To APEC coalition. “We had people willing to put their bodies across the intersection, because we are against business as usual.”

Other protesters include the Chinese religious movement Falun Gong, who lined Market Street with banners declaring their persecution from China. A pro-Chinese flag waving group gathered on Jessie and Third streets, blaring patriotic music. 

Demonstrators in support of the Chinese Communist Party occupy a city block near the APEC conference in San Francisco, Nov. 15, 2023. (Ruth Dusseault/BCN)

San Francisco police, dressed in riot gear, as well as the California Highway Patrol and U.S. Secret Service were heavily present throughout the area.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.