The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference (APEC) was founded in 1989 as an informal dialog group with limited participation by ministers and cabinet-level officials in the Asian-Pacific region, and rose to world prominence in Seattle in 1993 when President Clinton endorsed the organization and used it for what is now an annual summit meeting of Asian and Pacific leaders. The group has since become the main vehicle for promoting open trade and economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Seattle APEC conference was held in a Coast Salish-style longhouse at Tillicum Village on Blake Island, a state park in Puget Sound directly west of West Seattle. At the conference the group established an outline for APEC’s vision, “stability, security and prosperity for our peoples.”

In this image Ye Kuo Rong holds up a sign protesting China's human rights record while attending a demonstration outside the Federal Courthouse in Seattle on the day before the APEC conference was held. Mr. Rong, a member of the Alliance of Democratic Chinese, was once a political prisoner who spent five years in a Chinese prison.

Caption information sources: https://www.apec.org/About-Us/About-APEC/History; "President Clinton convenes APEC summit on Blake Island on November 20, 1993," by Walt Crowley, HistoryLink.org Essay 5333; and "Blake Island — Thumbnail History," by Daryl C. McClary, HistoryLink.org Essay 5491.
Caption information source: The Seattle Times, "A Region's Leaders Catch Up To History - World's Most Integrated Economies Get Even Closer," November 21, 1993, p. A1; and "APEC is Growing After Small Beginning," November 15, 1998, p. A2.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.