They want Jiang to be as unhappy as they are over China's aggression and policies in Tibet, Taiwan.

By Mark Davis

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

October 31, 1997

Carolyn Holland's three-hour investment yielded a minute tops of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's time and attention.

For Holland, that was enough. She and about 500 others protesting China's human-rights policies used it to maximum effect last evening as a shimmery black stretch limousine carrying Jiang slid past, taking the president to his nine-minute visit to Independence Hall.

Beating drums, chanting and striking cymbals, they told Jiang that he was not welcome in the building where a democracy took shape more than 200 years earlier. Their placards rose and fell like pennants in the wind, each with unmistakable messages: "China Out of Tibet," "Hands Off Taiwan."

Then, in a whirl of blue lights and sirens, he was gone whisked in and out through the back. He spent just enough time for a brief history of the old building and to receive a couple of gifts noting his visit.

Moments later, Holland stood at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, smiling.

"It was a chance of a lifetime," said Holland, a Northeast Philadelphia resident who is president of the local chapter of the U.S. Tibet Committee, a nonprofit organization formed to protest China's policies toward its tiny, Himalayan neighbor. "We can't go to China and protest, so we have to do it here.

"He's not going to be happy, seeing these protests wherever he goes."

Jiang should not be happy, said Linda Betaf, 54, a Haverford therapist who accepted a placard protesting Tibet's occupation. She waved it from Independence Mall, 200 yards away from Jiang.

"I wanted to stand up and be counted," she said.

So did John Koons, a 35-year-old computer consultant from Norristown who visited Tibet last year.

"It's a tragedy, what's happened in Tibet," said Koons. The Taiwanese have also felt Chinese aggression, said Frank Huang, who emigrated from Taiwan 23 years ago and is president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Taiwanese Association of America.

Yesterday, he closed up his Conshohocken dental practice early to join like-minded protesters in a spot not far from the Liberty Bell.

"If I could talk to Jiang, I'd tell him, 'Let Taiwan's 21 million people make their own decisions for the future,' " said Huang, 57. "I hope he can hear our words words from the heart."

Jiang doubtless heard something, said Theresa Perrone, the national director for the International Campaign for Tibet. She left the nonprofit organization's Washington offices yesterday in time to be outside Independence Hall.

"I think it's important to know that these protests will happen in every city he goes to," said Perrone, 22. "People will be saying, 'We don't like you.' That's really important, to let him know that."