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Canberra wakes up to China
'spies'
By Julio A Jeldres
After weeks of ignoring them, the
Australian government is taking seriously claims
by Chinese defectors that China's intelligence
services have up to a thousand spies actively
working in the country.
On May 26, Chen
Yonglin, first secretary of the Chinese consulate
general in Sydney, abandoned his post and asked
for political asylum in Australia after claiming
that Beijing's intelligence services are running a
1,000-strong spy network in the country.
Chen, 37, who had been a university
student in Beijing during the pro-democracy
movement in 1989, underwent re-education after the
Tiananmen Square crackdown and was allowed to join
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991. Sydney
was his first foreign posting. He described his
job at the Chinese consulate in Sydney as
monitoring the activities of Falungong
practitioners, democracy activists and also the
activities of pro-Tibet and pro-Taiwan groups in
Australia. (Falungong is a spiritual movement the
Chinese government branded as an evil cult after
10,000 members surrounded the leadership's Beijing
compound in protest in 1999.)
"As a
diplomat, I am supposed to serve my country. But
what I am doing here is not at all protecting my
nation's interest but rather persecuting my own
people and myself. In fact, I became a tool used
by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute my
people. This is against my conscience. I do not
feel I have betrayed my country. What I have
betrayed is a dictating party that has long been
detested by the peoples of the world," Chen told
Australian television.
Interestingly, his
defection took place at the same time as the very
low-key, almost secret, visit to Australia by Wu
Banggou, chairman of the National People's
Congress, purportedly to continue negotiations
with Australia on a free-trade treaty. China is
Australia's third-largest trading partner with
A$8.9 billion (US$22.7 billion) worth of annual
trade.
Chen's defection was poorly handled
by Australian officials, with ministers denying he
had made an application for asylum or passing
responsibility for any eventual decision on his
application to other colleagues. This prompted the
opposition parties, civil-rights groups and the
media to criticize the government for its handling
of the case and suggestions that it was being
influenced by the ongoing negotiations with China
over the free-trade deal.
As if Chen's
defection was not already a big headache for
Canberra, another Chinese dissident came out of
hiding and promptly backed Chen's claim that there
are 1,000 Chinese spies working in Australia.
Hao Fengjun, 32, who claims to have worked
for China's Internal Security Police, traveled to
Australia on a tourist visa in February and asked
for refugee status. He said he worked in Tianjin,
China's third-largest city, for a security service
known as Office 610. "Back in China I worked in
the 610 office and every day a lot of my time was
dealing with the reports that were sent from
overseas. They would send all this intelligence
information through from Australia, from North
America, Canada and other countries, and they
reported back to the National Security Bureau and
also the Public Security Bureau," Hao told ABC
Radio.
Hao also disclosed that when
lodging his application for refugee status with
Australia's immigration officials, he had handed
over secret documents related to the activities of
Falungong practitioners in Sydney.
With
the Australia's opposition parties demanding to
know why such senior dissidents had not been
debriefed by the country's intelligence agencies
and the media actively pursuing the story, a third
dissident came out of hiding and said he too had
witnessed the work of the spies Chen Yonglin has
spoken about.
Yuan Hongbing, a former
professor of law at Beijing University, applied
for an Australian protection visa in July last
year. He had been in prison in China for six
months in 1994 for his work in support of the
democracy movement and claimed he was about to be
arrested again when he fled to Australia using a
tourist visa. He said that in the 11 months he has
been in Australia he has received threats and has
been followed by Chinese spies.
Opposition
Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd told ABC
Radio that it was time for the Australian
government to reveal how many more Chinese
dissidents there were in Australia asking for
protection and that the accuracy of their
statements should be verified by Australia's
intelligence agencies.
Australian Green
Senator Bob Brown, who has been personally
involved in the case of Chen Yonglin, has placed a
notice in the Australian parliament to set up an
inquiry into the government's response to the bids
for political asylum by Chinese dissidents and to
look at contact between the Chinese and Australian
governments in the three weeks since Chen Yonglin
first sought asylum and discover why he was not
given immediate protection given the seriousness
of his claims.
Australian Immigration
Minister Amanda Vanstone said on Monday that the
application for Chen Yonglin, his wife and
daughter to stay in Australia had been given
priority.
China's ambassador to Australia
has denied all the dissidents' claims, and a
spokesman in Beijing for the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs told ABC Radio, "These rumors are
detrimental to China-Australia relations, and
China is ruled by law and all issues will be
handled in accordance with the law."
In
the meantime, the Australian newspaper disclosed
that Australian intelligence agents had begun
questioning the defectors over their claims.
Julio A Jeldres is a former
senior private secretary to King Norodom Sihanouk
of Cambodia and the king's official
biographer.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
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