MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
As the two presidents talked, a white privacy screen set up around the White House portico blocked the view across the street. There, hundreds of demonstrators gathered. A handful were there to support President Hu, but the majority from various ethnic and religious groups were there to air their complaints about China's policies.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
U: (unintelligible) human rights.
CROWD: (unintelligible) human rights.
BLOCK: My name is Mustafa Rusi(ph). I'm from East Turkestan but currently, I live in Virginia. We came out here to support our human rights. And kids like these right here, they live in fear because they arrest them, they torture them, they execute them (unintelligible).
CROWD: What do we want? Freedom.
BLOCK: My name is Mindy(ph), last name, G-E, Mindy Ge. Yeah. We come here. I am Falun Gong practitioners to ask for stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
BLOCK: My name is Shu(ph), law student at University of Virginia and we are here to welcome our president, Hu Jintao.
CROWD: Bow down, Hu Jintao.
BLOCK: My name is Mark Kao(ph). We are here to protest China's policy against Taiwan and also Tibet and East Turkestan. I think we need a dialogue, you know, U.S. need a dialogue with China. But we need to let Mr. Obama know that the current policy is not acceptable.
U: Free Tibet. Free Tibet.
BLOCK: Sound from demonstrations today outside the White House.