NSW state politicians and local councillors were among the influential
figures and informants used by the Chinese Government to push its political
and economic interests, according to Chinese defector Chen Yonglin.
Mr Chen has produced documents he claims are from the Chinese
consulate-general in Sydney, including the file of one Chinese-Australian
dissident and a list of almost 300 Falun Gong supporters which was sent by
the former Chinese ambassador and marked “very urgent”.
The former first secretary at the consulate, who was granted a permanent
protection visa on Friday, yesterday made good on his vow to “expose the
evil side” of China’s communist Government.
Speaking in Sydney yesterday, Mr Chen criticised Mao Zedong’s Long March in
the mid-1930s and the Communist Party’s failure to protect China from
Japanese aggression.
He also said many Chinese were unmoved by the 2001 terrorist attacks on the
United States.
Mr Chen defected six weeks ago. He has alleged that China had 1000
informants here and was involved in abductions in countries including
Australia.
“I know some informants’ names,” he said. “Today I don’t want
to publicise all these names. I just want to warn these people to stop doing
that.”
While he was at the consulate, he saw a list of names of prominent people in
NSW who could be relied on to help, he said. The list included “local
councillors and (state) parliamentarians”.
They were called on to help when, for example, the Chinese Government wanted
to stop Falun Gong practitioners participating in publicly funded events
such as the Chinese New Year parade, he said.
Mr Chen said there were many informants in the Chinese community in Sydney,
and some other Chinese diplomats in Australia shared his views.
China’s embassy has denied Mr Chen’s allegations of espionage and
persecution.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2005/07/10/1120934125968.html?oneclick=true
Posting date: 12/Jul/2005
Original article date: 11/Jul/2005
Category: Media Report
