[quote]Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has revealed the government has tried to discourage a defecting Chinese diplomat from seeking political asylum in Australia.
Chen Yonglin, the former first secretary at the Chinese consulate in Sydney, is seeking political asylum in Australia after claiming that up to 1,000 Chinese spies are operating in the country.
Mr Downer says it would be better for Mr Chen to apply for a temporary protection visa, instead of political asylum which he says has only been granted twice in Australia’s history.
The opposition leader, Kim Beazley, thinks there is a prima facie case for Mr Chen to stay in Australia.
Mr Chen’s allegations that there are hundreds of Chinese spies in Australia has been supported by a second defector, Hao Fengjun.
Australia’s attorney-general, Phillip Ruddock, says it would be “naive” to think that Australia’s spy agencies were not investigating the claim.[/quote]
http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stories/asiapacific_stories_1388000.htm
[quote]
Second Chinese man in asylum bid
Chen Yonglin claimed China has a large spy network in Australia
A second Chinese official has made a bid for political asylum in Australia, days after diplomat Chen Yonglin announced he had applied for refuge.
Hao Fengjun told ABC television he used to work for China’s security services, and had travelled to Australia on a tourist visa to seek asylum.
He backed claims by Mr Chen that China had up to 1,000 spies in Australia. [/quote]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4072424.stm
I’m curious about how Australia is going to handle these two asylum cases. My first reaction when reading about these two guys was “why would a mainlander seek asylum in Australia? That government wouldn’t even pull its lips away from kissing PRC ass long enough to give an answer to such an application.” However, I think that’s being a bit unfair to Australia. These cases seem different from the asylum cases of the cold war. Because of the path that the PRC’s economic development has taken, it is in a much better position to discourage foreign governments from doing things like granting asylum to defectors. And defectors are exactly what these two guys are. They are not just students who escaped after June 4 or Falungong nutjobs seeking sympathy and converts overseas. These two guys could potentially spread some serious dirt on the PRC that would further prejudice western voters against allowing their governments to cooperate with Beijing on a range of issues.
Does Australia have the balls to grant these guys asylum? Will they jeopardize the natural gas contracts and all the other trade and investment opportunities? Or will Howard and his boys decide that in these matters, Australia is just a lightweight and that only a heavyweight like the US can risk drawing Beijing’s ire?