Sarah Stephen
Sydney-based Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, who said he was assigned by his superiors to "monitor and persecute the democracy activists and Falun Gong practitioners in Australia", sought political asylum on May 26.
Chen has now revealed that Australian officials repeatedly discouraged him from defecting, even though he claimed to have valuable intelligence. His application for political asylum was rejected. The government is now considering his application for a protection visa.
At a media conference in Canberra on June 10, another four Chinese dissidents revealed that they were seeking asylum in Australia.
Yuan Hongbing, a former professor of law at Beijing University, and his assistant, Zhao Jing, told reporters that they had applied for protection nearly a year ago and were still awaiting a government response.
Another asylum seeker is former Chinese security officer Hao Fengjun. He fled China with what his lawyer described as a "treasure trove" of information about the 610 Bureau, formed to disrupt the Falun Gong religious movement in China and abroad. Another Chinese security officer, who said he fled China after he saw a man beaten to death in a police station, has not been named.
The immigration department has revealed that about 5800 Chinese citizens have applied for protection visas in Australia since July 1999. About 330 — less than 6% — were successful and about 420 applications are still being processed by the department and the Refugee Review Tribunal.
The public nature of this latest round of claims is extremely awkward for the Australian government, which places its trade relationship with China well ahead of any human rights considerations.
The total value of Australia's imports and exports with China tripled from $10 billion to $30 billion in the past eight years. China is now Australia's third largest trading partner.
Only a few months ago, on April 18, Prime Minister John Howard and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed that Australia and China would begin negotiations on a free trade agreement. The first round of negotiations on the FTA were held in Sydney on May 23.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's country brief on Australia-China relations, carried on its website, describes bilateral relations as having "reached a new level of maturity" in recent years. It describes human rights in China as a "sensitive" issue that has "the potential to cause difficulty", adding: "Our approach to human rights in China is constructive and based on dialogue rather than public confrontation."
The Chinese regime — dominated by "communists" who have been transforming themselves, their relatives and cronies into capitalist business owners over the last decade — has proved itself willing to use any means available in its effort to retain tight control of political and economic power.
Coerced confessions and political interference in judicial decisions are widespread; torture is common and 84% of globally documented executions are carried out in China. Based on public records, Amnesty International estimated that at least 3400 people were executed in China in 2004, but the true figure is believed to be much higher.
While the five Chinese asylum seekers claims have received a lot of media coverage, there has been less coverage about the larger number of Chinese asylum seekers currently being held in immigration detention.
In the last week of May and the first week of June, Pamela Curr from the Melbourne Asylum Seeker Resource Centre reported that Chinese government officials had been conducted through Baxter and Villawood detention centres and the Port Augusta housing project by Australian immigration staff.
"These officials — three men and one woman — were given access to interview detainees", Curr stated in a June 8 media release. "They were allowed into the housing project to speak to women there; yet neither visitors, ministers or pastoral care visitors are allowed into the housing project. Women report that the officials showed no identification, nor gave their names.
"They asked the women their names, children's names and ages and what they were waiting for. They also asked them to sign a document written in English. The women speak little and read no English. Some women have so-called 'black children'; that is, a third child, who, under Chinese law, is not entitled to medical care, and for whom the parents must pay a fine."
Detainees were interviewed one by one. At Villawood and Baxter, the detainees were asked to sign a document written in English, which they could not read, and which had an immigration department stamp at the top.
Some of the Chinese detainees were told by the Chinese officials that they were from the "national security bureau".
"The Australian government has no right to give details and access to officials from the same country from which these people are fleeing", Curr stated. "This is not the first time this has happened. The Iranian government was also given access [to the detention centres]. Both these countries have deplorable human rights records."
Curr told AAP on June 15: "It's unbelievable that the Australian government allowed" the Chinese asylum seekers' "potential persecutors to interrogate them".
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, June 22, 2005.
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