CHINA -- It's not often that members of Congress find themselves running from police in foreign countries. But in September 1991, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, had slipped out of her Beijing hotel room, with reporters and a crowd of curious followers in tow, and gone without official permission to Tiananmen Square.
Along with two other members of Congress, Pelosi unwrapped a banner that read, "To those who died for democracy in China." The decidedly undiplomatic delegation was immediately surrounded by police and Chinese "tourists" who pulled walkie-talkies from their backpacks.
Anybody watching Pelosi since San Francisco voters elected her to Congress in 1987 could find dozens of deliberate anti-China incidents orchestrated by the 58-year-old mother of five. She keeps a photo from the 1991 visit, displaying it occasionally on the floor of Congress.
Pelosi has emerged as a leading critic of the Chinese regime and of her own president, who she says has a bankrupt policy toward China. More often than not, she finds herself on the outside while Bill Clinton dines on chilled lobster with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
While fellow Bay Area resident Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein was hosting a 1997 Blair House reception for her "oldest friend in China" - Jiang - Pelosi was across the street at a protest denouncing him as a despot.
"What do they expect me to say?" Pelosi asked. "That it's not OK for a Republican president to coddle dictators, but it's OK for a Democrat?"