A woman has suffered bruises to her arms and is now in crutches after suffering a physical assault by two men—alleged Beijing sympathisers—who were vandalising her car that had signage criticising the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The incident occurred at Floriade car park on Oct. 4 at 4:10 p.m in Canberra, Australia’s capital, where the two Chinese men were seen graffitiing Chinese signage on a car that read, “End the evil CCP.”
Chain of Events
In the footage, Dong could be heard asking the men in Chinese, “What are you doing?”“They did not say anything, and continued to spray the display board, until the entire display board was covered by black spray paint,” Dong said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.
Dong then saw a young woman standing at the entrance of the car park also recording the men spray painting. Dong started to record the young woman.
“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 said.
The young woman then asked Dong why she was filming her, telling Dong that she did not know the men.
Dong said she had reason to believe the woman was connected with the men; she then attempted to grab the lady’s jacket.
“As the lady attempted to run away by removing her jacket that I was holding onto, I proceeded to grab her handbag. She wasn’t able to run away as I was holding onto her handbag,” Dong said.
The young man who stole Dong’s phone then came back telling Dong to let go of the young woman.
“You stole my phone, I won’t let her go,” Dong told one assaulter.
The young man then threw her phone on the ground, after which she loosened her grip on the woman’s handbag.
“Unexpectedly, this young man then grabbed my neck with his elbow, lifted me up, and threw me to the ground.
“He then started to kick and punch me. I almost fainted from the fall and I lost the ability to resist his attack,” Dong said.
An Australian woman then came forward, grabbing the man’s arm and urging him to stop. The man and woman then drove off in a grey car.
“Because my phone screen was smashed and my whole body was hurt so badly and couldn’t move, I did not get the car’s number plate,” Dong said.
But she managed to retrieve the footage from the phone and sent it to ACT Policing.
Photos supplied to The Epoch Times show the injuries Dong sustained on her arms and elbows during the altercation.
Holly Wei, a friend of the victim, said in a statement that Dong felt like this man was “a trained policeman who knew where to attack.”
In a statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for ACT Policing said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and have urged anyone who witnessed the incident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
“A report has been made to police that a woman returned to her vehicle to find two men spraying graffiti on it, and an altercation occurred,” the spokesperson said.
Human Rights Issue
Former Senator Eric Abetz told The Epoch Times that the “alleged damage to property and even worse physical assault on a lady critical of a brutal dictatorship is an attack on an individual, [and] is an attack on free speech.”He added that the attack is “a display of misguided loyalty to a regime which has a human rights record which Australians rightly find appalling.”
Dong practices Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual practice that is currently banned in China.
Since its ban in July 1999, Falun Gong practitioners across the world have been peacefully protesting against the CCP’s ban and persecution, while also exposing the human rights atrocities carried out by the totalitarian regime.
Many “End CCP” car rallies have been held in cities around the world to mark this milestone.
In Australia, “End CCP” car rallies have toured major cities across the country; however, this is the first reported case of an assault on an individual in Australia involved in the car event.
