Argentinian practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong have been attacked by around 40 Chinese nationals, who were allegedly linked to the Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
The incident took place on Jan. 26, during a Chinese New Year festival in Buenos Aires, and according to images, videos, and eyewitness accounts, the attack appeared to be coordinated.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, one of the victims said that the group attended the event to demonstrate Falun Gong’s free meditation exercises and to distribute flyers informing people about the persecution of the practice by the Chinese regime, which has been ongoing for more than 25 years in China.
While the Falun Gong practitioners waited for the event’s performances to begin, an unidentified Chinese man in a white shirt and black cap walked through the crowd, talking on his walkie-talkie and pointing at the practitioners, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Then, he directed a group of pro-Beijing individuals to walk up to the practitioners and ultimately began attacking them.
Eyewitness footage reveals that Ignacio Chirinos, who was at the event with his wife, was pinned to the ground by dozens of Chinese, as the attackers tore a banner from his hand that had the phrase, “The world needs Truth, Benevolence, and Tolerance”—the core values that represent the teachings of Falun Gong.
Meilin Kleman, one of the practitioners who was also attacked, told The Epoch Times that the “Chinese Embassy had organized a very strict security system to ensure” that these practitioners did not take part in the event.
Kleman also said that many of these practitioners were not wearing their yellow T-shirts, which are usually worn by the group at public events.
“They knew who we were,” she said.
“They were really waiting for us, and they didn’t want us to be there, nor did they want us to hand out flyers or do anything.”
Eyewitnesses said that the attackers were seen laughing while some onlookers asked them to stop.
Kleman said eight men surrounded her while she was handing out flyers at the event. They knocked her to the ground and tried to steal her belongings, she said. During the assault, her glasses and cell phone were damaged as she attempted to record the incident.
None of the attackers were arrested, and the police detained the practitioners who didn’t commit any crime, Kleman said.
“I was handcuffed, as was another Falun Gong practitioner. So it doesn’t make sense unless they had direct orders from the Chinese Embassy to do this, and I’m sure that was the case,” Kleman said.
“Because if it wasn’t, it doesn’t make sense that eight, nine men would assault a woman and, instead of taking these men away, [the police] take the woman away, quite forcefully, and let the Chinese thugs go free.”
Many of them, some of whom were even injured, were held for hours by the police before being released. This was the case of Romina García, who was at the event with her 5-year-old son.
“The police told me they would take me to the police station and take my son away from me, and the officer even filmed my face and my son’s face,“ García said. ”Then they made me sit on the ground under the sun with my son for almost two hours.”
García said the police filed a false complaint against her.
“They kept me there for another hour and then brought a notice saying that I had been reported for injuries and assault; in other words, they filed a false report against me,” she said.
One of the alleged aggressors was briefly detained near the Belgrano neighborhood and was released shortly after making confidential calls to monitoring agents and leaving in a luxury car with his colleagues, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
The Falun Dafa Association in Argentina issued a statement about the incident, calling on the Argentine government to protect the religious rights of the practice in the country.
“The Falun Dafa community in Argentina asks the National Government, President Javier Milei, and the authorities at all levels to protect and guarantee freedom of belief so that Argentine citizens are not violated in their own country by the interests of foreign powers,” the statements reads.
This is not the first time that incidents like this have happened in Argentina.
Recordings of the incident show one of the policemen using his baton to beat the hands of the protesters holding a banner. Later, the same policeman also forced a protester to drop her banner by using his baton as a chokehold around her neck.
Kleman, who was also present at the demonstration in 2018, told The Epoch Times that at the time, the military attaché of the Chinese Embassy, Liu Chang, had asked the police to take the nine Argentinians to the border with Uruguay to be handed over to Chinese agents who would “take care” of them.
CCP’s Influence in Argentina
The CCP’s influence and interference in Argentina have been ongoing for several years.In 2016, for example, then-Argentine President Mauricio Macri discovered that his government could not access a Chinese satellite base in the Patagonia region. The base had been built by China and was operated by the Chinese army, which critics have considered a violation of Argentina’s sovereignty.
According to the contract signed by Argentina’s previous administration, China received a 50-year concession to operate the base with tax exemptions and have total control over its operations.
Some features of the base also raised concerns that the structure could be used for military purposes.
In an attempt to change the contract and gain access to the Chinese base, Macri found that if Argentina wanted to change the terms of the agreement, it would need to renegotiate all its loans with China, putting billions of dollars at risk.
A Decades-Long Persecution
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice based on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, which began to be openly disseminated to the public in the early 1990s.Due to its moral teachings and health benefits, the practice quickly spread throughout the country. By the late 1990s, official estimates put the number of people practicing Falun Gong at around 70 million.
In July 1999, the CCP launched a widespread campaign to eradicate the practice, fearing that its growing popularity would threaten the Party’s totalitarian rule. Since then, millions of practitioners have been arbitrarily detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands reportedly tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
In recent years, the CCP’s efforts in suppressing Falun Gong beyond China’s borders have intensified.
