July 11, 2005

Speaking out? Mr Chen, who has been granted permanent residency in Australia, at the Ashfield Catholic Club yesterday. Photo: Tanya Lake

NSW state politicians and local councillors were among the influential figures and informants who were used by the Chinese Government to push its political and economic interests, according to the 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 that 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 at the Ashfield Catholic Club, Mr Chen criticised Mao Zedong's Long March in the mid-1930s and the Communist Party's failure to protect China from the Japanese.

He also said that many Chinese were unmoved by the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Mr Chen defected six weeks ago. He alleged that China had 1000 informants here and was involved in abductions in foreign 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 said, he saw a list of names of prominent people in NSW who could be relied on to help out that included "local councillors and [state] parliamentarians".

They were called on to help when, for example, the Chinese Government wanted to stop the Falun Gong participating in publicly funded events like the Chinese New Year parade.

Mr Chen said there were many informants in the Chinese community in Sydney, and that there were other Chinese diplomats in Australia who shared his views.

China's embassy has denied Mr Chen's allegations of espionage and persecution.