Victims of an attack by a Chinese Consulate guard in Los Angeles have said they intend to file a lawsuit against the attacker, the diplomatic mission, and Beijing.

Jie Lijian, head of the China Democracy Party International Alliance and one of the victims, hosted a news conference outside the Chinese Consulate General on Jan. 11. He said that accountability should extend beyond the perpetrator and his security company to the Chinese Consulate General and authorities in Beijing, and he said that the attack was an act of the Chinese regime’s transnational repression.

“We will take them to court,” Jie said, according to a translation of his original speech in Mandarin. “This effort to seek justice is not about personal redress alone—it is a life-and-death struggle between global justice, democracy, and freedom, and the evil, dark tyranny of the Chinese communist regime.”

The attack occurred on Jan. 4, after dozens of Chinese protesters held a peaceful event outside the Chinese Consulate General to celebrate the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and to denounce the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its leader, Xi Jinping.

The event took a troubling turn when a security guard, after verbally threatening the participants during a heated exchange, pepper-sprayed them and those standing in the street, according to video footage from the scene.

The guard, 38-year-old security company owner Wu Xian, was arrested shortly after the attack. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, he was released two days later on a court order.

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern over the incident, noting that the First Amendment guarantees the right to peaceful assembly.

Jie said he believed that Wu chose to attack the protesters because he thought he was a Chinese law enforcement official carrying out the CCP’s rules.

You Feizhu, a Chinese human rights lawyer who was among hundreds of lawyers and activists targeted in a 2015 nationwide clampdown in China, said at the news conference that he felt fortunate to be able to join others in staging peaceful protests in the United States.

“If such an attack were to happen in China ... the victims could be locked up in detention centers and face charges such as ‘causing public disturbances’ and ‘disturbing social order,’” You said, according to a translation of his original speech in Mandarin.

Lawsuit

China Democracy Party headquarters held a separate news conference in the City of Industry, California, on Jan. 10. The organization’s chairman, Zheng Cunzhu, told The Epoch Times that the lawsuit would also ask the Chinese Consulate General to issue an apology over the attack.

“We believe that the Chinese Consulate General bears joint responsibility, because in hiring such a security company and employing such security personnel, it failed to conduct adequate background checks,” Zheng said.

“It hired a so-called security company that fundamentally does not understand U.S. law and that used violence against others at the scene. As a result, the consulate itself bears responsibility—whether intentional or negligent—and has joint civil liability.”

Zheng said the attack reflected a new Beijing tactic to intimidate overseas pro-democracy activists and deter participation in future peaceful protests.

There were eight victims of the attack, some of whom required hospital treatment.

Fu Chaoqun, one of the victims, recalled during the Jan. 10 news conference how he felt in the moments immediately following the attack.

“For maybe one or two seconds, I was in that kind of suffocating state, feeling like I couldn’t breathe. Immediately, there was a burning sensation all over my face. At that moment, I felt like I was about to die. It was an overwhelming feeling of suffocation,” Fu said, according to a translation of his remarks.

“I squatted down on the ground and desperately shouted for help. It was that kind of instinctive, deep, from-the-heart urge to survive.”

Another victim, Le Zailin, said that Wu was no longer acting as a security guard.

“He has chosen to side with the Chinese Consulate General. He is no longer a security guard. He is a thug of the [Chinese] Communist Party,” Le said, according to a translation of his remarks.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.