On March 10, the public of Australia were shocked to hear the facts of the assault by a male Zhao on a female Nancy Dong who was exercising her right to free speech in Australia by pointing out the obvious—the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not reflective of China and the people.
If it were truly reflective, there would be no need for the dictatorship and its ruthless repression of dissidents as it would be endorsed in free and open elections. Dissidents would pose no threat as the overwhelming good of the regime would be obvious to all others.
One suspects the attack, which left the victim physically bruised and emotionally traumatised, was not a spontaneous one. The perpetrator used a spray can to deface the placard of the peaceful protestor.
Most people don’t just happen to have a can of spray paint in their back pocket as a lady might carry a comb or lipstick in her purse.
The premeditation and therefore time to reflect prior to the attack makes the attack worthy of the $3,000 fine.
Separating the Regime From the People
The attack also begs the question of how brainwashed some of China’s citizens have been.National pride is a good thing. Thankfulness for one’s country and its achievements are worthy virtues.
But their worthiness is for naught if it justifies and encourages the brutality as inflicted on the female victim.
His attempt to excuse his actions, as a reaction to the sign being an affront to his homeland and him acting out of a sense of “national pride,” is truly sad and exposes the brainwashing inflicted on many Chinese by the Communist regime.
It appears Zhao cannot differentiate between his homeland and its people, and the current government.
The dictatorship, the CCP, and the Chinese nation are all inextricably interwoven in this warped thinking—they are one and the same; an attack on the party is an attack on the nation.
A Queensland student was similarly set upon by some Chinese students because of his pro-democracy and pro-freedom stance on campus.
Similar thought patterns emerged at a relatively recent Senate hearing where people presenting as China experts could not bring themselves to condemn the communist dictatorship in Beijing despite its horrific record of human rights abuses, from having one million Uyghurs in concentration camps, forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and house Christians, not to mention the plight of the Hongkongers fighting for the freedoms which they were promised.
The response was textbook as outlined by Australian author Clive Hamilton in his seminal work “The Silent Invasion.” The questioner was condemned as racist, amongst other name-calling, allowing the misguided Australian media to be distracted from the issues at hand.
Standing up for Freedom
While the brave Nancy Dong will live with this nightmare for the rest of her life, it is to be hoped that some good will come from this disgraceful episode. Surely there must be an awakening within the Australian media and public that the Chinese regime is brutal, with a systematic indoctrination of its citizens.Ask any Chinese student about Tiananmen Square and they will either not know what you are talking about, or if they do, it is dismissed as Western propaganda.
As Zhao returns to China he will be welcomed by the regime. Nancy Dong on the other hand deserves to be hailed as a heroine for her stand against an evil regime that is responsible for the deaths of millions of its citizens and the repression of millions of others.
Freedom is a precious value that needs to be continually protected and for which people of goodwill must consistently fight lest it is lost to the hands of brutal dictatorships such as the Chinese population under which so many suffer. Nancy Dong stands in the vanguard of true freedom fighters.
