A senior Chinese diplomat has sought Australian government protection for himself and his family, claiming he faces persecution if he goes home, Australian officials said yesterday.
Analysts said Chen Yonglin's defection could muddy Canberra's relations with Beijing, its third-largest trading partner with annual exchanges now worth A$28.9 billion (US$22.7 billion).
The Weekend Australian newspaper said Chen, 37-year-old consul for political affairs at China's consulate in Sydney, had applied for political asylum but officials had ruled this out. It said Chen was now seeking a protection visa that would enable him, his wife Jin Ping, 38, and their six-year-old daughter to remain in Australia.
PHOTO:EPA
The newspaper said Chinese consular security staff were searching for Chen, who had walked out of the mission a week ago, saying he could no longer support China's persecution of dissidents.
"They are searching for me. I heard they are looking for me everywhere, especially in the Chinese community," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
A spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said that the government knew of the matter but that it was a case for the Immigration Department.
"We are aware that an official from the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney has applied for a protection visa," she said.
The reported defection comes amid efforts by Australia to forge closer economic ties with China
According to the Weekend Australian, DFAT told Chen, who holds the rank of first secretary, that his request for political asylum had been rejected but that he could apply for a protection visa.
Such a visa would entitle him to remain in Australia permanently.
Despite concerns for his safety, Chen appearing at a rally in Sydney yesterday to mark the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. He told the rally that about 1,000 Chinese spies are operating in Australia and have carried out several kidnappings. He said he had evidence of several instances in which people were kidnapped and returned to China.
"They have successfully been kidnapping people in Australia back to China," he said.
He said one kidnapping involved the son of an opponent of the Chinese government who had been studying in Australia.
"I told this to the Australian government when the immigration and foreign affairs officials interviewed me on the 31st of May but they don't care," he told the rally.
He said the number of Chinese spies in Australia numbered "some thousand."
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
A former television news host and six military personnel — active and retired — have been indicted on espionage charges, Kaohsiung prosecutors said yesterday. Lin Chen-you (林宸佑), a former CTi News host and YouTuber, last year allegedly made videos at the direction of a Chinese agent criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party’s recall campaign, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office told a news conference in Kaohsiung. He allegedly received 4,325 tether coins for the videos from an unidentified person surnamed Huang (黃), believed to be an agent of a hostile foreign power, they said. Lin, also known as Ma Te (馬德), has a show named
RSS