Hu visit turns out Microsoft's Chinese employees and protesters

The visit to Microsoft today by Chinese President Hu Jintao brought out perhaps 100 protesters, and an equal number of Chinese Microsoft workers waving Chinese flags.

It also brought out American Microsoft employees who were curious about the protesters' concerns. About 60 protesters gathered around the campus entrance, and handfuls staked out public sidewalks near the company's executive briefing center where Hu and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates met.

Further away on campus, a handful of Falun Gong practitioners sat cross-legged on the grass. They set up banners saying their members were killed in China and their internal organs sold.

If it's true, "It makes me want to write my congressman." said Quentin Hurd, 26, a product manager in Microsoft's volume license business.

Hurd and consultant Kartik Matmari said they wanted to hear what protesters had to say, so they took advantage of spring weather and walked around the campus, which is nestled in pine trees with views of snowcapped mountains.

The protesters' visibility, however, was limited.

Microsoft placed potted pine trees in a way that screened the protesters from view of the conference center. Later, three buses parked in a way that futher blocked the view. Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said the trees were moved there to cover up a "blank, sort of desolate area." He didn't know about the buses.

By mid-afternoon, a group of about 100 Chinese Microsoft workers had gathered along the route Hu's motorcade would take. They had Chinese flags, hastily run off on color copiers at Microsoft.

"We are proud to be Chinese," said Yibo Cai, 30, from Hubei, China. He's been here a few months, the beginning of a five-year stay on a visa. Of the protesters, he said, "I think the China they describe is very different from the China I know about."

Others were more critical of the protesters, and the rights of freedom and democracy they're seeking.

"They're putting a black mark not just on the Chinese president but on the Chinese nation," said Qin Zhuang, 22, who works on Microsoft Windows. "I don't think they should be out here."

Seattle Times photographer Dean Rutz contributed to this report.