July 10, 2005

A Chinese spy known as "Agent 180" has infiltrated a church group in Auckland and is sending information back to China, claims a former Chinese secret policeman seeking asylum in Australia.

The defector, Hao Feng Jun, told the Sunday Star-Times the name of the agent and said the man had infiltrated a branch of the Auckland Presbyterian Church.

Three members of the Falun Gong movement have given the agent's name to the Immigration Service, which has notified the police.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said: "This information will most certainly be followed up by the departments and our security people."

Goff said anyone could feed information back to their home country, "but anyone in breach of the law or involved in espionage would be dealt with the same way the Israeli spies were."

Hao told the Star-Times the agent was part of a network of spies gathering information on religious groups and others such as Falun Gong practitioners, who [the Chinese Communist Regime persecutes brutally].

Hao was part of the notorious "610" unit that prosecuted Falun Gong in the northern city of Tianjin but fled to Australia in February with sensitive information.

He went public after Chen Yonglin, a diplomat at China's Sydney consulate, defected in May alleging 1000 Chinese spies were operating in Australia.

It was announced yesterday that Chen was granted residency in Australia. Hao, who is in hiding, said through interpreters that Agent 180 was also from Tianjin, and was arrested in about 2001 while attending a local meeting of the Presbyterian church.

Chinese police asked him to become a spy and operate in New Zealand. Hao said the agent agreed and had his ticket to New Zealand and his accommodation paid for, and was given at least $US15,000 to finance his activities.

Because of his Presbyterian connections he was asked to spy on Chinese members of the Presbyterian church in New Zealand, and report to officials in China.

[...]

Hao revealed that Agent 180 had also become the "representative" in China of a New Zealand-based Chinese Presbyterian minister, who had no idea his colleague was a spy.

The minister had invested in a business in Shanghai, and asked the spy to travel to Shanghai to gain more members for the church and spread Christianity.

The agent had traveled to Tianjin last October and held a fellowship meeting, which was secretly recorded by authorities.

Hao said he was not directly involved with Agent 180 himself, but had seen him.

A blacklist had been formed with the names of New Zealand Chinese. They faced immediate arrest on their return to China.

Hao said the Chinese Government had a three-year plan to create a "secret force" of spies in five main countries - the US, Canada, Australia, NZ and Japan - and had been "very successful."

A Falun Gong practitioner in Auckland, who only wanted to be identified as Don, said Hao's revelations might convince New Zealanders that Falun Gong was not being paranoid when it claimed it was being watched.

"A lot of people don't believe us. It's very hard to believe that in New Zealand there could be spies operating."