In the US She is Taking the People Republic of China to Court
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In the US She is Taking the People Republic of China to Court
On Monday (March 6), the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia received a complaint: Qiao Jie, a 70-year-old New York resident, sued the People's Republic of China.
In the civil lawsuit, Qiao Jie accused the Chinese authorities of assaulting, beating and causing her mental distress.
"I have no choice but to take up legal weapons in the United States," she told VOA. "The United States is a country ruled by law, so let's go to court."
This nightmare began on August 17 last year, when Qin Gang, the then US ambassador to China, staged a peaceful protest in front of the official residence in Washington.
"I shouted there, Ambassador Qin Gang met the petitioners. I am Qiao Jie, a petitioner from Wuhan City, Hubei Province. I reported the corruption in the Hongshan District Court with my real name and seized my property," Qiao Jie said.Qiao Jie is a Chinese citizen holding a US green card. When she was in China, she had been petitioning for many years because of the collusion between government and businessmen to illegally occupy her land, and the local court abused judicial power.
There were four other petitioners at the scene that day. Like Qiao Jie, they were also dissatisfied with the injustice they suffered in China. They shouted to the ambassador's residence with loudspeakers. The US police officers who provided security for the ambassador's residence did not stop them.
Qiao Jie recalled that at around 6 p.m., several men rushed out of the ambassador's residence, also holding loudspeakers, and came towards them aggressively.
The live video taken by the petitioners on their mobile phones showed that two Chinese men wearing masks came from outside the ambassador’s mansion. After trying unsuccessfully to drive away the petitioners, they entered the ambassador’s mansion and reappeared with loudspeakers.
They played the police siren on the ears of the petitioners with a loudspeaker, and the petitioners, who could not stand the high-decibel noise, tried to fight back. U.S. police officers struggled to separate the two parties. The situation fell into chaos in an instant.
"When they rushed out, I stood far away and watched them huddle together," Qiao Jie recalled. "When they were walking back, a tall, thin man came over with a horn and hit me on the head. I was very scared at the time, and I couldn't hide. Then he hit me, and I fell down."
Qiao Jie has a history of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. She slumped on the ground and took a heart medicine that she carried with her. She doesn't know what happened next. She just felt dizzy with a headache and couldn't see clearly. She fell into a coma.
She was taken by ambulance to the ICU ward of the emergency department. Doctors diagnosed her with post-traumatic seizures, mild traumatic brain injury from the impact, and hemorrhagic brain contusion.
"After the ambulance took me there, I came out 23 days later. When I was discharged from the hospital, half of my body could not move," Qiao Jie told VOA.
After being discharged from the hospital, she relied on a wheelchair to live. She said that she had gone to the U.S. Secret Service office many times to ask the other party to provide a case report and severely punish the perpetrators. But the other party said that China has diplomatic immunity. After several protests, the Secret Service banned her from the building.
"Nine guys from the Secret Service lifted me out of it," she said.
She did not give up and was determined to protect herself with legal weapons.
There have also been rare cases in the past of individuals suing foreign governments in the United States. One of the most high-profile cases is the parents of American college student Otto Warmbier v. the North Korean government. In 2017, Warmbier died of torture while serving a prison sentence in North Korea. The following year, his parents were awarded more than $1 billion in compensation. The compensation came from North Korean assets seized by the United States.
Qiao Jie proposed $25 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the defendant, the People's Republic of China. However, even if she wins the civil lawsuit due to the absence of the Chinese side, obtaining huge compensation will still be a huge challenge.
"Money is not important to me, I only weigh the seriousness of the fact," Qiao Jie said. "You don't let me speak at home, you don't let me go abroad, and you don't let me speak when I go abroad, and you hurt me again. I believe that the laws of the United States will give me justice."
Voice of America has repeatedly called the Chinese embassy in the United States, hoping that China will comment on this incident, but the embassy's calls have never been answered.
Just two months after Qiao Jie was attacked, a similar incident occurred in the UK. A Hong Kong protester holds a pro-democracy demonstration in front of the Chinese consulate in Manchester. He was dragged into the consulate where he was beaten and injured. British authorities have asked Chinese diplomats to waive official immunity to allow an investigation. China responded by recalling the six officials, saying it was a "normal rotation of personnel"
