Australia said yesterday it has granted a permanent visa to a Chinese diplomat who defected in Sydney and later claimed that Beijing runs a vast spy network in Australia.
Kirk Coningham, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, confirmed Chen Yonglin (
Chen, who has been in hiding since fleeing China's Sydney Consulate, was unavailable for comment. Since going into hiding shortly after his defection, Chen has on several occasions emerged to hold news conferences where he has claimed to fear for his life if forced to return to China.
Coningham said Chen's case had been considered in the same way as up to 1,000 other Chinese nationals who seek asylum in Australia every year.
"His circumstances obviously are unusual but he's just gone through the normal process," Coningham said. "There hasn't been any ministerial intervention or anything like that, it has just been the normal process for a protection visa."
He said he did not know how many of the between 700 and 1,000 Chinese applications made each year succeed.
Greens Party Senator Bob Brown, who campaigned for Chen to be allowed to remain in Australia, said the diplomat was delighted by the decision.
"The granting of permanent visas for Chinese diplomat and defector Chen Yonglin and his wife and daughter is due to huge public sentiment which swept in to rescue him. Chen and his family will be valuable Australian residents. I congratulate him. His conscience and his courage have been rewarded by this nation if not its government," Brown said in a statement.
Last month, Chen told reporters he feared he already had been deserted by Australian authorities who were more concerned about sealing a multibillion dollar free trade deal with Beijing than with protecting his human rights.
China is Australia's third-largest trading partner, with trade worth about 29 billion Australian dollars (US$21.4 billion) a year and Australia is set to begin delivering liquid natural gas to Guangdong Province next year as part of a long-term A$25 billion supply contract -- the country's largest export deal.
China's ambassador to Australia has warned Canberra that it could encourage more Chinese to seek refuge in Australia if it grants asylum to a former Chinese diplomat. Fu Ying (
"We have some Chinese who don't like China that much and want to profit for their own personal agenda -- they would move to Switzerland, Australia, the USA. Mr Chen is an example," Fu said.
"He now appears to be hating China so much, but China offered him the best a young man can have," she said yesterday.
Fu has previously said Chen has nothing to fear from China, and on Thursday said he had lied about his home country.
"He has had to go to the extent of attacking his motherland in order to be accepted in another country ... There are people like him -- he's not the first and he will not be the last -- there will be quite a few," Fu said.
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