The asylum application of a former Chinese diplomat who claims to be part of a 1,000-member spy network in Australia is being treated "as a matter of priority," Australia's immigration minister said yesterday.
Chen Yonglin (陳用林), 37, left his post as a consul for political affairs at China's consulate in Sydney last month and approached immigration officials seeking political asylum in Australia.
His initial application was rejected and he is now in hiding with his wife and daughter as the government considers an alternate request for a temporary visa normally reserved for refugees fleeing persecution.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Chen's temporary visa application was lodged on June 3 and was being processed "in a normal manner, but as a priority."
"Far from dithering over Mr. Chen's protection visa application, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs is processing the application as a matter of priority," Vanstone said in a statement.
spy network
Chen's case made headlines earlier this month when he emerged from hiding to tell a pro-democracy rally in Sydney that he had been a member of a 1,000-member spy network tasked with monitoring Chinese dissident groups in Australia, including Falun Gong members and Taiwanese independence activists.
In a statement read before a Sydney rally attended by about 100 people yesterday, Chen encouraged his fellow citizens to "free themselves [from] the spirit bondage and the party chains" of Chinese communism.
"Now it's the time to smash and break the chains holding your body and soul, and embrace a life of freedom as I did walking out of shadows into a new life, no matter how difficult it is," Chen reportedly said in the statement read by Sonya Bryskine, international editor of the Epoch Times, an English-language newspaper supported by the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
`shake off fear'
"Democracy and human rights are what we Chinese need urgently," the statement said. "Let us be brave and join hands together to shake off all the fear, terror and grief laid upon us by the ruling communist regime in China."
Chen has repeatedly told the media he fears for his safety if he is forced to return to Australia.
He told the Nine television network's 60 Minutes program on Sunday that he could face up to 10 years in prison or the death penalty for disclosing government secrets.
"Serious punishment will be waiting for me," he said on the program.
China's ambassador to Australia, Fu Ying (傅瑩), has denied Chen's spy claims and said he would be not be harmed if he returned to Beijing.
The case comes at a sensitive time for Australia-China relations, but both governments have said Chen's asylum bid will not affect their economic or political relationship.
China is Australia's third largest trading partner, with trade worth about A$29 billion (US$22 billion) a year.
The two countries have just begun negotiations over a multibillion-dollar free-trade deal, and Australia is also set to begin delivering liquid natural gas to Guangdong Province next year as part of a long-term A$25 billion supply contract -- Canberra's largest export deal.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
RSS