Posted on 06/03/2005 9:49:01 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A SENIOR Chinese diplomat is on the run with his family after abandoning his post and seeking political asylum in Australia.
Claiming he fears persecution if he returns to Beijing, Chen Yonglin, 37, the consul for political affairs at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney, said last night consulate security staff were looking for him after he walked out of the mission seven days ago.
"They are searching for me. I heard they are looking for me everywhere, especially in the Chinese community," Mr Chen told The Weekend Australian last night.
"I feel very unsafe, so I seek protection."
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirmed last night that "an official from the Chinese consulate had applied to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs for a protection visa".
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Canberra last night refused to comment on the affair.
Mr Chen, his wife, Jin Ping, 38, and their six-year-old daughter were in hiding last last night. Mr Chen claimed he met a senior Department of Immigration officer in Sydney on May 26 who, he said, rang the consulate to confirm his identity.
The Chinese consulate said "they wanted me to come back".
Mr Chen said he then met with a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade protocol officer in Sydney on May 31.
He said the DFAT officer told him at the meeting that his request for political asylum had been rejected but he was told he could apply for a protection visa.
"DFAT told me the Chinese Government want me back and Australia doesn't want me," Mr Chen said.
Mr Chen, who holds the rank of first secretary, said he was seeking to defect because he could no longer support his country's persecution of dissidents.
"Since I was a university student, I have been supporting the pro-democracy movement in China and have witness (sic) the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989," Mr Chen said.
"Now with my strong dissatisfaction with the current Chinese Government, I call on an immediate reform to the political system."
Mr Chen, who contacted The Weekend Australian yesterday afternoon, claimed he was responsible for monitoring political dissidents, including members of the controversial religious sect Falun Gong, during the past four years in his post.
He said he had been "going easy" on dissidents he had been charged with monitoring and not reporting them, in protest at Beijing's policies.
Mr Chen said he was not a member of Falun Gong but empathised with the group, whose practitioners in China, he said, had been "persecuted massively".
"I am in charge of the Falun Gong issue ... Falun Gong practitioners are a socially vulnerable group, and they need help but no prosecution and forced brainwash."
Mr Chen joined the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991 after being "re-educated" following his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, where several of his university friends were wounded.
Too bad he's not an admiral with a briefcase full of war plans. If he grabbed a few codebooks on the way out the door, we'll take 'em.
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