China Says Defector Lying To Stay In Australia

June 5, 2005

By REUTERS Filed at 6:41 a.m. ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Chinese diplomat seeking asylum in Australia claiming spies are hunting him after he aided pro-democracy supporters and criticized Beijing, is lying to stay in the country, a Chinese official said on Sunday.

Chen Yonglin, the 37-year-old consul for political affairs at China's Sydney consulate, was due to return home after four years in Australia and had made up stories in order to stay, a spokesman for the Chinese Consul-General Qiu Shaofang said.

``To achieve the aim of staying in Australia, Chen Yonglin fabricated stories, which are unfounded and purely fictitious,'' said the spokesman in a statement.

Chen, who first appeared in public on Saturday at a rally in Sydney to mark the anniversary of the 1989 crushing of Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, said the Chinese government considered him a threat because he had offered help to some democracy activists and Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong is an amalgam of religions, meditation and exercises that Beijing considers to be an evil cult.

Chen said he had walked out of the consulate four days ago and was seeking asylum because he could no longer support China's repression of pro-democracy and religious groups.

He said he was in hiding with his wife Jin Ping, 38, and 6-year-old daughter.

Chen said that there were up to 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia and that Chinese spies were trying to kidnap him and take him back to China.

``Chinese agents are looking for me and they could kidnap me,'' he told the rally. ``If I am sent back to China I will be persecuted. I am very frightened. I am afraid it will be easy for them to find me.''

Chen said Chinese spies had previously kidnapped critics of Beijing in Australia and returned them to China.

``They have successfully been kidnapping people in Australia back to China,'' he said. ``Each year they have kidnapped a good number.''

Chen's attempted defection could muddy Australia's ties with Beijing, its third-largest trading partner with annual exchanges now worth A$28.9 billion ($22.7 billion).

PERSECUTION FEARS

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Chen had applied for a protection visa.

Asked whether Chen's fears of persecution if sent back to China would be considered, Downer said: ``He's spoken out (against Beijing) very recently. That's something the immigration department will obviously have to weigh up.

``They'll have to take into account the implications of refusing his protection visa application, and in those circumstances he'd be sent back to China,'' Downer told Australian television.
Downer said he was unaware of claims of large numbers of Chinese spies operating in Australia, but added the government did not comment on intelligence matters.

The Australian newspaper recently reported that the number of Chinese agents in Australia had increased sharply during the past decade and now outnumbered Soviet spies during the Cold War.

It said that the nation's main spy agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Organization (ASIO), had set up a new counter-espionage unit to boost surveillance of foreign spies.
Citing unnamed government sources, the daily said that Australia has been targeted aggressively in recent years by Chinese spies seeking information on military-related technology and strategic policy secrets.

The small Greens party criticized the Australian government on Sunday for its handling of Chen's asylum application, saying the government had put trade above human rights.

Party leader Bob Brown said Chen had written to the Australian government in late May asking for his asylum request to be urgently processed, but had received no protection.

``The idea of sending this man back to China is unthinkable -- it would be tantamount to ending this man's life and that of his family,'' Senator Brown told reporters.

Chinese Diplomat in Australia Seeks Asylum

June 5, 2005 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A senior Chinese diplomat in Sydney who abandoned his post and is seeking political asylum in Australia came out of hiding Saturday to address a pro-democracy rally.

Chen Yonglin, 37, the consul for political affairs at the consulate-general in Sydney, walked out of the mission a week ago. Shadowed by a security guard, he appeared Saturday at a Sydney rally to commemorate the June 4, 1989, crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing.

In a wide-ranging address, Chen outlined examples of what he said were kidnappings, life imprisonments and executions of dissidents by the Chinese government.

''I feel very unsafe,'' Chen told the rally of several hundred. ''In 16 years, the Chinese government has done nothing for political reform. People have no political freedom, no human rights.''

Chen, who said he had worked at the Sydney consulate for four years, expressed hope that the Australian government would offer him protection ''so I will not have to hide again.''

Chen has been in hiding with his wife and their 6-year-old daughter.

In a statement issued Sunday, China's Consul-General accused Chen of claiming asylum purely to remain in Australia. ''To achieve the aim of staying in Australia, Chen Yonglin fabricated stories, which are unfounded and purely fictitious,'' a spokesman for the Chinese Consul-General Qiu Shaofang said in a statement.

On Sunday, Amanda Vanstone, Australia's immigration minister said Chen's request for political asylum would be considered on its merits.