Tibetan activist unfurls anti-Xi banners on lamppost near US Capitol

A Tibetan student activist climbed a light pole near the US Capitol on Tuesday morning and hung banners criticising the Chinese government, in an action organisers said was intended to "unwelcome" Chinese leader Xi Jinping before his scheduled arrival in Washington.

Standing on a rainy Pennsylvania Avenue, the protester held a Tibetan flag and displayed signs reading "Dictator Xi, your empire will fall. Free Tibet" and "Dictator Xi you are not welcome." He was later taken into police custody. Officers cordoned off the sidewalk beneath the lamppost with crime scene tape and were seen looking up at him during the demonstration.

Xi is due in Washington on Wednesday to meet President Trump.

Tsela Zoksang, campaigns director for Students for a Free Tibet, said the flag waved by the young activist is banned inside Tibet. "It's a flag that if you wave inside of Tibet, it gets you killed. Disappeared forever, or imprisoned," she said, describing the act as a way to honour Tibetans who have self-immolated for the cause.

Zoksang framed the protest as representative of wider sentiment. "This is representative of the sentiments and feelings of so many Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Southern Mongolians, Chinese dissidents, who have risked their lives and put everything on the line to see freedom in their countries one day," she said. "Today is really to say that Xi Jinping, you are not welcome."

She added that the activists hoped the summit would not produce any deal, particularly on critical minerals, which she said would worsen environmental destruction in Tibet and amount to "greenwashing" of China's occupation.

Organisers expect thousands of demonstrators to gather in Washington this week to protest Beijing's policies in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and what they describe as human rights abuses.