Canberra police are seeking public assistance to identify two men and one woman who are alleged to have assaulted a woman and damaged her car that had signage criticising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Police are seeking to identify three people involved in the incident—two men and a woman.”
The victim, Nancy Dong, a Chinese woman in her 50s, suffered injuries after being assaulted by the two men, who graffitied Chinese signage on her car that read, “End the evil CCP.”
Dong, a Canberran local, recorded the incident on her phone before one man snatched it and proceeded to assault her. It is thought the group could allegedly be Beijing sympathisers.
In the footage recorded, Dong could be heard asking the two men in Chinese, “What are you doing?”
“At that time, the taller young man ran away, and another young man suddenly snatched my mobile phone from behind me and also ran away.”
Dong then saw a young woman standing at the entrance of the car park, also recording the two men spray painting. She started to record the young woman, whom she believed was connected with the men.
The altercation led to bruises on Dong’s arms and injuries to her lower body that have forced her to require the use of crutches to be mobile.
Both movements were started by practitioners of Falun Gong, among which Dong is a member.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice of the Buddhist tradition with moral teachings centred on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice attracted between 70 and 100 million practitioners in the 1990s, according to the Chinese regime’s official estimate.
Taking Falun Gong’s popularity in China as a threat to the communist regime, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in July 1999, which is still ongoing.