Empire State Building: China Communist 60 years

Since the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001, the Empire State Building stands again as the tallest building in New York City.

In recognition of special occasions, holidays, and causes, and in honor of special people and sports teams, the top of the building is bathed in colorful lights.

For example, after 9/11, the Empire State Building glowed in red, white, and blue.

Wednesday and Thursday, the great American building once again displayed special lighting, this time to honor an anniversary.

From the New York Times:

The nighttime lights atop the Empire State Building are a source of visual pleasure but also of frequent mystery for New Yorkers. What was with all that red last Thursday? It was a nod to the 70th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz” — ruby slippers and all that. How about the green a few days before that? That was for the Muslim holiday of Id al-Fitr.

If you wonder why the Empire State will be red and yellow Wednesday and Thursday nights, it is to honor the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Looked at another way, it is to honor the 60th anniversary of the Communist takeover.

Not everyone in New York thought this was an especially wise move, including 20 or so pro-Tibet protesters who stood outside the building’s Fifth Avenue entrance on Wednesday morning to denounce the Empire State’s collaboration with a regime that has harshly occupied Tibet for the last five decades. They carried signs bearing slogans like “Mao’s Empire State Building.”

“It’s kind of like a red star over the Empire State Building,” Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said of the lighting.

At the same moment, a ceremony was held in the building’s lobby to observe the occasion. Peng Keyu, China’s consul-general in New York, flipped a switch that bathed the top of a replica of the Empire State in red and yellow. “This is really a great gesture,” Mr. Peng said to Joseph Bellina, the building’s general manager, who described the nighttime lights as “a symbol of unity between our countries and our peoples.”

Why are we celebrating the 60th anniversary of a communist regime?

NEW YORK -- 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 colors 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."

"It's a great public relations coup for the Chinese state," Tethong said as tourists gawked at the protesters. "But on the other hand, it's sure to backfire because the American public and the global public will speak against it."

I agree with Tethong.

It is crazy that we would honor the beginning of a communist state that has oppressed billions of people.

The American public should speak out against this.

We should not be celebrating 60 years of human rights violations.

This is truly a disgrace.