Hu winds up US visit amid protests

President Hu Jintao insisted yesterday that China's rapid development was not a threat as he wrapped up a US visit amid demonstrations by several thousand people.

Mr Hu spoke before students at Yale University a day after talks with US President George W. Bush that were marred by gaffes and which failed to bridge gaps over the Chinese currency or on how to resolve nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea.

"China's development will not compromise the interests of anyone, nor will China's development threaten anyone," Mr Hu said, highlighting the doctrine of "peaceful development" which Beijing has put forth to allay fears about its growing economic and military clout.

Asked by the audience about political reform in China, Mr Hu said his government would "make efforts to further enrich the format of democracy and orderly participation in the political sphere for Chinese citizens".

Between 5,000 and 10,000 mostly ethnic Chinese detractors and supporters of China's communist government staged rival demonstrations around the campus, according to New Haven police.

"Stop killing Falun Gong practitioners and stop killing Falun Gong," shouted Jane Zhizhen, an ethnic Chinese woman who said she travelled from Australia to protest over China's treatment of the spiritual sect that Beijing banned and brutally crushed in 1999.

Several thousand pro-China demonstrators, including ethnic Chinese women in silk red and white outfits, waved Chinese flags, danced and banged drums to welcome Mr Hu.

On Thursday, Falun Gong activist Wang Wenyi disrupted Mr Hu's elaborate White House welcome ceremony by heckling for three minutes while the flustered Chinese leader tried to speak.

"President Bush, make him stop persecuting Falun Gong," shouted Wang, who gained entry to the ceremony as a reporter with The Epoch Times, a sect-backed English newspaper. Wang was charged in federal court yesterday with harassing, intimidating or threatening a foreign official. A spokesman for the US Attorney's office in Washington said the misdemeanor charge carries a penalty of up to six months in jail.

At Yale, a CNN reporter was ordered to leave a photo opportunity after he asked Mr Hu a question about the protests outside - a violation of the event rules, university spokesman Helaine Klasky said.

The Washington Post yesterday chided the White House for what it called Mr Hu's "day full of indignities," beginning with the accreditation of Wang, who had once harassed Mr Hu's predecessor in Malta.

The daily also noted that China's national anthem was introduced as that of the "Republic of China," the formal name of China's rival, Taiwan, instead of the song of the People's Republic of China on the mainland.

Mr Hu's trip was dogged at Yale and in Washington by hundreds of other protesters, including Taiwan nationalists waving green flags and Tibetan youth groups.