Pro-Beijing Woman Arrested After Allegedly Attacking Protester Amid Trump–Xi Summit

WASHINGTON—Pro-Beijing protesters clashed with human rights activists seeking to spotlight abuses in China amid the Trump–Xi summit, attempting to cover demonstrators’ banners and allegedly injuring at least one woman.

The injured woman is Xin Qin, a Falun Gong practitioner who was taking a photo of some other demonstrators who held banners quietly in front of the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington on Sept. 24.

The alleged pro-Beijing attacker repeatedly asked Xin to step back while pressing close to her, Xin told The Epoch Times. After Xin backed off five or six steps, she said the woman suddenly pulled her down backwards, and Xin’s hand and shoulder hit the ground.

Xin alleged that three or four other pro-Beijing protesters then joined in, hitting and even biting her.

She added that the assailants didn’t stop even after the police arrived.

Xin sustained scrapes on her hand and legs in the process, she said, and her phone was also smashed.

The pro-Beijing protesters attempted to cover the Falun Gong banners with large sized umbrellas, one Falun Gong practitioner told The Epoch Times. The Epoch Times reporter witnessed two police officers shooing away one woman carrying a large red Chinese flag.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that features meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

The incident occurred on the first day of the summit, shortly after the two countries’ leaders concluded bilateral talks.

Ahead of the meeting, lawmakers and advocates already expressed concerns about the regime suppressing dissent on U.S. soil around the occasion.

“People who are in this country should not have to worry about whether they’re going to be the subject of repression by a foreign government,” Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) said in an interview on Wednesday, just before Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s arrival.

“We tell the world that this is a place where freedom of speech and expression is respected, and we know that China is engaged directly in threatening people here and threatening their families back in China,” he said.

Rather than hosting a state dinner, he suggested the president should brief Xi on the “all the evidence” of Chinese transnational repression in the United States.

“It has to stop. This is not President Xi’s country,” he said, adding that people here should be free to express their beliefs without fearing repercussions.

Xin said she had hand cramps after the assault and was taken to the hospital.

The alleged attacker was identified by demonstrators as a Chinese immigrant based in New York. The woman allegedly pretended to faint after the police came to restrain her, according to one Falun Gong practitioner who witnessed the scene.

The police have opened an investigation, Xin said.

Human rights activists said the alleged pro-Beijing attacker has a history of targeting multiple China critics, including other Falun Gong practitioners.

During Xi’s previous U.S. visit to San Francisco in 2023, a Chinese petitioner from Shanghai said the woman stepped on her foot and hit her in the head.

Witnesses said Chinese consulates and pro-China networks have recruited welcoming crowds by offering cash and expense-covered trips, similar to allegations made during other high-level Chinese officials’ overseas trips.

The incident marked the second of two similar incidents in three days.

In Toronto on Sept. 22, a man with a Chinese flag emblazoned on his jacket allegedly dismantled banners belonging to a Falun Gong practitioner protesting outside the Chinese consulate. The man was accused of pushing and threatening her as she attempted to stop him, causing her chin to bleed.

“I’ll shoot you dead, believe it or not,” a video captured him saying. He allegedly kicked another woman who tried to film his actions.