Supporters of Chinese officials seeking political asylum in Australia rallied in the country's major cities yesterday, saying Canberra would face international condemnation if it put trade issues ahead of human rights.
"The international spotlight is now shining brightly on the Australian government," Free China spokeswoman Kate Vereshaka told a demonstration of about 50 people in Melbourne. "Will they offer safety and protection in the name of humanity or will they just keep playing it safe?"
Diplomat Chen Yonglin (陳用林) fled his post at China's consulate in Sydney last month and last week alleged Beijing was operating a network of 1,000 spies across Australia.
Two other Chinese officials, policeman Hao Fengjun and an unnamed official who says he was involved in the Chinese security service that monitors the Falun Gong spiritual movement banned by Beijing, are also seeking to defect to Australia.
All three say their lives will be in jeopardy if forced back to their homeland.
The situation has provided a headache for Australian government officials, who are striving to expand political and trade ties with China.
Candice Molnar, a representative of the Epoch Times newspaper, which is linked to the Falun Gong, said Hao has sent a message of thanks to his supporters.
"Through the incidents recently I strongly feel the vast democracy and freedom in this beautiful land of Australia, I love it here -- I love everything here," he said in a letter read by Molnar.
Another protest of about 50 people was held in Sydney, with participants demanding government support for the defectors and criticizing government restrictions on Falun Gong demonstrations outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
Under the laws, Falun Gong practitioners are free to meditate but they are banned from playing amplified music or attaching banners to walls or vehicles.
Meanwhile, rebel government politicians said yesterday they were holding talks with Prime Minister John Howard in a bid to prevent an internal revolt over his administration's hardline policies on asylum seekers.
Judi Moylan, one of a group of more than 10 government MPs demanding the softening of mandatory detention for asylum seekers, said the talks were progressing positively.
The rebels are considering crossing the floor of parliament to vote against the government on the issue, a rare show of dissent in the conservative administration noted for its internal discipline.
Moylan said Howard had shown a willingness to compromise as talks continue over a long weekend in Australia ahead of a crunch meeting of government politicians on Tuesday.
"I think the most important thing is a willingness to consider the issue, particularly the release of families with children from detention, and I think we're making some very good progress on that front," she told ABC radio yesterday.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS