Kang Zhao sentenced for assaulting Falun Gong follower
A Falun Gong practitioner has said she would forgive a man who assaulted her and defaced her anti Chinese Communist Party signs.
Canberra Star
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A man has been fined $3000 after pleading guilty to assaulting a Falun Gong follower during Canberra’s Floriade festival.
The statement of agreed facts state Kang Zhao and another man used spray paint to deface anti-CCP signs on Zhixiang Nancy Dong’s car.
Ms Dong began to record the men defacing her signs with her phone and tried pulling Zhao away.
Zhao took Ms Dong’s phone and began to walk away, before she approached his wife where she grabbed her jacket and handbag.
Zhao grabbed Ms Dong’s hand and told her to let go of his wife, but she did not let go, and dropped her body weight causing all three people to fall to the ground.
Ms Dong fell onto her back and continued to hold onto Zhao’s wife’s handbag.
Zhao attempted to wrestle the handbag away from Ms Dong and caused reckless damage to her phone during the process.
The incident ended when a witness told the trio to stop.
Ms Dong reported the incident to police and Zhao was arrested on December 5 at Sydney Airport where he was due to fly to China.
Zhao pleaded guilty in ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday to common assault, damaging property and marking private property with paint without consent.
In a powerful victim impact statement Ms Dong said the incident had made her feel more defensive.
She said she and her husband suffered “brutal persecution” in China for practising Falun Gong.
“I was arrested on many occasions and during the last time more than a dozen policemen broke into my home at midnight, seized our personal belongings and took both me and my husband away,” she said.
“I was illegally sent to the labour camp for one year and my husband (was there) for one and a half years.
“We were forced to do 12 to 14 hours of labour a day … the living and working conditions were extremely harsh.”
Ms Dong said she and her husband fled to Australia and said she felt she had an obligation to “expose the CCP’s atrocities” to the Australian public.
“(During) Floriade we displayed the signs on our car roof that read ‘CCP is not equal to China’ and ‘end the evil CCP,” she said.
“I never imagined I would encounter such a violent assault because of this.”
Ms Dong said she had “no hatred’ for Zhao and described him as a victim of “CCP’s brainwashing education”.
“You have hurt me both physically and mentally … however if you can realise your wrongdoing and sincerely apologise to me I will forgive you.”
Zhao’s lawyer James Maher said his client saw Ms Dong’s signs as an “affront” to his country.
He said Zhao moved to Australia a decade ago, studied commerce and ran a business which closed due to the pressures of the pandemic.
He said due to the incident he has been separated from his wife and child in China for three months and spent 15 days in custody where he slept on a wet mattress that smelt of urine.
He described Zhao’s offending as “out of character” and said he was unlikely to reoffend.
Magistrate James Stewart said because Zhao was returning to China a good behaviour order would not be effective.
He was convicted of all charges and fined a total of $3000 with 28 days to pay.
In a statement provided by solicitor Alex Cao, Zhao said “I am remorseful for my impulsive behaviour in recklessly damaging the property, graffiti and common assault”.
“I am grateful for his honour‘s findings that I acted excessively to protect my wife and her property in relation to the common assault,” he said.
“This is a big lesson and something I take very seriously.”
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