Shouting their petitions through megaphones from 7:00 a.m. for hours on end, protesters outside Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng’s house in Washington’s Kalorama diplomatic district are prompting neighbors to complain about the noise.

The Chinese protesters have different complaints, but they are all using the liberty they enjoy on U.S. soil to get across a message to the Chinese government that would likely get them locked up back home.

But many residents have scant sympathy.

“This protest is outrageous,” local resident Holly Sukenik told RFA Mandarin. “It’s not just a First Amendment, freedom-of-speech kind of issue, because it is disturbing anybody who lives within several blocks.”

“People could not go outside and enjoy their backyards; they have little children — it’s waking up their children, or preventing the children from sleeping, from going to bed,” she said. “It is affecting the quality of life of everybody around, and it’s been going on for two years.”

Former millionaire businessman Hu Liren, who is among the protesters outside Xie’s residence, said he stopped using a loud speaker after realizing the impact of his protest on those around him.

“I would like first of all to apologize to the neighbors around here,” Hu told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “The megaphones and loudhailers really do disturb local residents and affect their lives.”

“I decided I wouldn’t use loudspeakers any more, so now I just hold up this sign,” he said.

Hu is complaining to the Chinese government over his company’s loss of tens of millions of yuan after a supplier in the eastern province of Shandong started sending him fake and defective raw materials. 

He wants the suppliers, who are being protected by authorities in Shandong’s Linyi city, held to account, and has traveled to the United States to protest after being threatened by officials from the city.

Demolition complaint

Fellow protester Ma Yongtian, who hails from the northeastern Chinese province of Jilin, said she has been petitioning in Washington on and off since 2013, moving her protest this year from the Chinese Embassy to the ambassador’s residence.

Part of her protest over the demolition of her family’s house by authorities nearly a quarter of a century ago involves burning incense in front of a portrait of ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.

“I come to burn incense for Chairman Xi because my family’s case has dragged on for 24 years,” Ma said via loudspeaker outside Xie’s home. “We won a lawsuit in 2002, but then the Changchun municipal authorities declared it was a wrong decision in 2003.”

Municipal regulations in Washington bar the use of public sound systems or loudhailers above a certain noise limit, and residents have put in complaints with the city council over the protests, and city officials “are now working for a resolution,” Sukenik said, in a reference to new legislation currently going through the council that would limit speakers in public places to just 55 decibels.

“I feel I should apologize,” Ma told RFA Mandarin when asked about the impact on local residents. “But the main responsibility should lie with Ambassador Xie Feng.”

“As a representative of [the Chinese] government, he should come out and do something to resolve this issue.”

Asked what that would look like, Ma called for a direct channel for dialogue with the Chinese government, “so we can interact in a positive way, not just this vicious cycle.”

The protesters are also insistent that they haven’t broken any laws.

According to the District of Columbia Noise Control Act, non-commercial public speech isn’t currently considered noise, as long as the sound levels as measured at the nearest house doesn’t exceed 80 decibels. 

A recent news report by the wusa9 TV station said the output of the protesters’ speakers was 104 decibels, without specifying the precise location where the levels were measured.

Not everyone is aggrieved by the protests, however.

Local resident Andrew Hall said he was unbothered by the noise, which he said was completely legal, and that the right to protest was something that a country should provide for its citizens.

Meanwhile, Sukenik said she too supported the protestors’ right to protest — just not quite so loudly.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin.

This post was originally published on Radio Free.