Americans gather in front of Nancy Pelosi's office building in San Francisco to protest against her Taiwan island trip on August 2, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Gordon Kwan

Holding signs reading "US hands off Taiwan" and "We Want Peace! No New Cold War with China," some one hundred residents of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional district gathered outside her office in San Francisco on Tuesday, demanding that Pelosi stop recklessly pushing China and the US to the brink of war at the expense of Americans. 

Angry Americans condemned the soon to be retired House Speaker, who was bent on creating tensions by visiting the island of Taiwan while ignoring the violence and poverty that are so prevalent in her own district.

On Tuesday night, Pelosi landed on the island of Taiwan in disregard of China's strong opposition and serious representations, which is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiqués, and has a severe impact on the political foundations of China-US relations. 

On Wednesday, after Pelosi met with Taiwan's regional leader Tsai Ing-wen, many Chinese American associations published denunciations of Pelosi's visit in local Chinese newspapers.

"When I heard my friends and family talking about the protest, I did not hesitate to join them. As a Chinese American, I cannot watch American politicians destroy the opportunity for China and the US to move in the same direction," said Gordon Kwan, President of the Alliance For China's Peaceful Reunification, USA. More than 20 members of his community attended the protest. 

Kwan told the Global Times that on August 2 at the San Francisco office of Pelosi, people from American NGOs and associations such as Pivot to Peace, CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace, as well as several Chinese American communities participated in the demonstration.

"While we were chanting slogans, sporadic 'Taiwan independence' activists jumped out and shouted, but no one cared about their ugly, clumsy performance at all. The facts are that attempts to split the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan are not popular anywhere," Kwan said.

Kwan said that the Americans who participated in the demonstration clearly understood that the Taiwan question is the most important, core and sensitive issue in China-US relations. "But the political gambling by Pelosi and other so-called US political elites seeking to score for the Democrats in the midterm elections has seriously damaged the national credibility of the US and further damaged the political trust between the US and China," he said.

Kwan said that Pelosi, as the leader of the US House of Representatives, has ignored the intractable problems of inflation, gun violence and racial discrimination that occur almost daily in US society and has put more effort into meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.

Americans gather in front of Nancy Pelosi's office building in San Francisco to protest against her Taiwan island trip on August 2, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of Gordon Kwan

The protest also served as an outlet for many American netizens to express their discontent with their own government. "Shame that she can't even take care of her own people in SF [San Francisco]," said one Twitter user from the US, following a BreakThrough News report on the protest.

A non-profit research organization, The Gun Violence Archive, shows that 309 mass shootings have occurred in the US during the first half of this year. 

In San Francisco, homicides were up 150 percent year-over-year in April, while total shootings increased 138 percent, Fox News reported. According to NBC news, in June, inflation in the Bay Area hit a 38-year high.

"We have donated to her, we've supported her throughout these years, but we are so disappointed that what she's doing is totally against the welfare and the well-being of the community - in particular Chinese Americans," said Julie Tang, one of the initiators of the protest rally and a retired judge who served on the bench of San Francisco Superior Court for more than two decades. Tang noted that Pelosi has stood up for the military-industrial complex and has been "raising the temperature for war," The San Francisco Standard reported.

Cynthia Papermaster, a member of CODEPINK, a women-led grassroots organization working to end US wars and militarism, said on the organization's official website that she participated in a spirited and excellent action yesterday against Pelosi, "whose dangerous, ill-advised and incendiary decision to visit Taiwan is being condemned by China and many worldwide, including in Taiwan and the US."