Chinese defector Hao Feng Jun has provided further alleged evidence about the
claims of surveillance and monitoring of Australian citizens and residents by
China.
Mr Hao told Lateline that two weeks ago when he came into Australia
on a tourist visa that he smuggled a computer file carrying hundreds of Chinese
security documents that he had secretly downloaded from his police computer.
ABC
TV’s Lateline program has had some of these documents translated and if they are
accepted as authentic, the targets are members of the spiritual movement Falun
Gong in Australia.
Mr Hao’s lawyer Bernard Collaery says that for the time
being he is not giving the documents to ASIO because of his concerns that Australian
officials may have visited senior Chinese officials in the Public Security Bureau.
However, he is already cooperating with another Western intelligence agency.
"The thought of Australian officials going in the front door and (Chinese
security office) 6-10 information going out the back door leaves us with some
fears about making this information available to the Australian intelligence services,"
Mr Collaery said.
The Chinese Embassy declined to comment on the claims.
A
second Chinese defector, former diplomat Chen Yonglin, backs Mr Hao’s claims.
Mr
Chen said the document given to Lateline by Mr Hao is most likely genuine.
"This
document sounds like a real one, except no stamp and I believe that – yes, it
sounds like a real one," he said.
Members of the movement in Australia
believe they have been subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment by Chinese
agents.
Intelligence report
One of the documents is an alleged
intelligence report, dated October last year, apparently compiled in Beijing and
circulated to senior Chinese officials.
It details plans by the New South
Wales Falun Gong to hold a conference in Sydney after Christmas and it names the
organisers, including John Deller, an Australian Falun Gong practitioner, whom
it describes as being behind "quite a few activities to disturb and damage
the Chinese Government".
Mr Deller confirms the broad accuracy of
the intelligence report – Falun Gong did hold a conference in Sydney after Christmas
– but he is horrified by the personal references.
"It’s a little creepy
actually to think that activities here in Australia are being monitored so closely
by Chinese Communist officials," Mr Deller said.
"I think it’s
outrageous that an ordinary Australian citizen like myself is coming under such
surveillance."
Chinese-Australian university student Yan Yan Che is
also named in the report as a key Falun Gong organiser among Chinese students
on New South Wales campuses.
It describes her as "an overseas Chinese
student, female, 22 years old, "from Shangdong province, second year student
of NSW University".
"It’s surprising, it’s just sickening, it’s
scary," she said.
"It pinpoints my name, where I came from, where
my ancestors came from, my age, where I study.
"I never know that
I am actually being monitored by 610. I never felt so close to China and the Communist
Party as I do now."
Another document, dated January 24 this year,
names a Chinese woman presently seeking refugee status in Australia.
It
says the woman, named Chen Hong, was sentenced to a year in a labour camp in 2000
because of her Falun Gong beliefs and was expelled from the Communist Party.
She
applied for a visa from the Australian commission in Shanghai in 2003. It records
that she is now in Australia.
‘6-10 Office’
Speaking on ABC
TV’s Lateline program, Mr Chen still says he is living in fear of being sent back
to China to face imprisonment or death.
While waiting for the Australian
Immigration Department to process his asylum claim, Mr Chen has been given the
number of a policeman to call if he is threatened in any way.
Mr Chen again
maintained the existence of the Chinese 6-10 security office that defecting policeman,
Mr Hao, had previously told Lateline he had worked for in China.
"Yes,
6-10 Office was established in 1999 on June 10," Mr Chen said.
"That
was established to control the Falun Gong organisation and, in my view, to persecute
Falun Gong practitioners."
Mr Chen says it is common knowledge among
Chinese officials, diplomats and consular offices that the 6-10 Office exists.
"Every diplomat working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs knows that
existed, yes, 6-10," Mr Chen said.
Mr Chen says China wants to crack
down on Falun Gong members in Australia.
"Their idea is that it is
overseas missions to blame that caused the problem in China," he said.
"If
there is no disturbance from overseas in China, the 6-10 Office can solve every
problem in China, should finish the Falun Gong issue very quickly.
"Overseas
– the Falun Gong practitioners put pressure to the government, the Chinese Government,
and launch too many activities so that – and try to influence, mobilise their
force, their influence in China."
….
Posting date: 22/Jun/2005
Original
article date: 21/Jun/2005
Category: Media Report
