June 24, 2005 Friday

A SLACKS Creek resident who has received death threats and abusive phone calls has backed claims by a former Chinese consular official that a spy network is operating in Australia.

William Luo and other southside practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China, say they have been threatened and harassed by agents of the Chinese Government.

He supports information from the former first secretary of the Chinese Consulate General in Sydney, Chen Yonglin, who claims China has more than 1000 spies in Australia.

Mr Luo and fellow practitioner Louise Stevanovic of Sunnybank said they had been inundated with abusive recorded phone calls from China on "sensitive" days of the year.

"On Chinese New Year my phone rang from 10 in the morning until 11 at night with these abusive messages," Mr Luo said.

He said he also had had death threats three years ago while at a Falun Gong rally in Fortitude Valley.

"A man spoke to me in Mandarin but with a Cantonese accent, telling me I should stop these protests," Mr Luo said.

"He said: 'If I kill you, you will stop, yes?' He pointed to my daughter who was with a lot of other children and said 'If I kill her, you will stop'.

"He knew she was my daughter. He must have been watching us."

Mr Luo said he reported the incident to the Fortitude Valley police who told him to report any further threats immediately.

Ms Stevanovic said she had more than 20 calls to her home number three times this year New Year's Day, Chinese New Year and the Chinese Moon Festival.

"Traces have shown that they were sent from China. But the question is how do they know our phone numbers and our personal details? They must have people here supplying them with the information," Ms Stevanovic said.

Another practitioner Zhang Mei said she went to Hong Kong three years ago and was refused entry before being deported back to Australia. Ms Mei said she was given no immediate reason for the action ...