Melbourne Herald Sun (AAP): Chen shows proof of spying claims

July 10, 2005

DEFECTING Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin has made public three documents, which he says show the Australian Chinese community is being spied on.

Mr Chen was granted a permanent protection visa last week after abandoning his post at the Chinese Consulate-General six weeks ago in Sydney.

At the time he said there was a network of 1000 Chinese spies operating in Australia and he feared for his life if he was forced to return to China.

In Sydney today, Mr Chen released three Consulate-General documents with information allegedly provided by informants.

One document tracks the movements of a female Falun Gong practitioner in Australia while another provides an organisational breakdown of the local Falun Gong [...] movement.

The third document is written on a Chinese Embassy letterhead and says the names of 300 Falun Gong practitioners would be forwarded to the consulate.

Mr Chen says the names provided by informants would be put on a blacklist in the consulate.

"In the Chinese community there are a lot of informants, of course," Mr Chen told reporters.

"Today I don't want to publicise all these names (of informants), I just want to warn these people to stop doing that.

"I want to tell these informants from the bottom of my heart I look down upon them."

Mr Chen said while he had been granted a visa, he felt he still had to be cautious because he said there was a possibility he could be kidnapped.