NYC: Empire State Building Honors China, Critics Protest

— AP reports: “Red and yellow lights shone from the top of the Empire State Building at dusk Wednesday, a tribute to communist China’s 60th anniversary that protesters labeled “blatant approval” of totalitarianism and criticized as inappropriate for an icon in the land of the free.”
— “The building is routinely lit with different to mark holidays and big events, but opponents questioned whether it’s right to commemorate a sensitive political issue, particularly when China has such a poor human rights record.”
— “About 20 supporters of Tibet, which China has ruled since shortly after communists took over in 1949, protested outside the building during a ceremonial lighting of a scale model inside the lobby. They chanted ‘No to China’s empire; free Tibet now,’ and held signs reading, ‘Empire State Building celebrating 60 years of China’s oppression.'”
— “Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, called the lighting ‘outright, blatant approval for a communist totalitarian system.'”