San Francisco Erects Barricades to Keep out the Homeless for Xi Jinping

San Francisco
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Olivia Rondeau

Barricades and fencing have been erected in San Francisco as the city scrambles to clean up its homeless population ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Photos and videos showing metal barricade structures outside of the Moscone Center, where leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group are set to gather Wednesday, have garnered criticism on social media.

“San Francisco built a wall and made all the homeless people disappear for Xi,” End Wokeness, an account with more than 1.8 million followers, posted on X. “If only they cared about pleasing their own constituents as much as they care about pleasing a world dictator.”

Biden and Xi are to meet on the “sidelines” of the San Francisco summit on Wednesday, reports Fox News. 

More images from the city’s streets show before-and-after photos in which homeless encampments were seemingly cleaned up right before the Chinese leader’s arrival.

“Xi has done more to clean up our filthy cities than any elected U.S. official,” former White House speechwriter Darren J. Beattie wrote on X.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to the backlash at a press conference, saying “it’s true” that San Francisco has been cleaned up for all “those fancy leaders who are coming into town.”

“Because it’s true,” the progressive governor said. “But it’s also true, for months and months and months prior to APEC, we’ve been having different conversations.”

In October, Newsom became the first U.S. governor to visit China in more than four years, meeting with Xi and promising to be his “long-term, stable, and strong partner.”

Jinping meets with Gavin Newsom, governor of the U.S. state of California, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 25, 2023. (Photo by Huang Jingwen/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2023. (Huang Jingwen/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The White House said in a Friday statement:

The Leaders will discuss issues in the U.S.-PRC [People’s Republic of China] bilateral relationship, the continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication, and a range of regional and global issues. Building on their last meeting in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, the Leaders will also discuss how the United States and the PRC can continue to responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, particularly on transnational challenges that affect the international community.

Democrat San Francisco Mayor London Breed claimed on X that APEC is “projected to bring over $50 million in economic impact to the City — this is support for our small businesses & restaurants, people staying in our hotels, and tax revenues that pay for things like our parks, libraries, services, and police officers throughout our city.” 

Meanwhile, her city has been plagued with homelessness. A city government report revealed that San Francisco has 7,754 homeless people, with 887 individuals experiencing homelessness per 100,000 residents. This is far above the peer average of 578 per 100,000. 

As Breitbart News covered in October, San Francisco made headlines for allowing a homeless sex offender to camp outside of a Catholic grade school, advertising “Free Fentanyl 4 New Users.”

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