China defector in Australia contacts U.S. mission

Reuters ^ | June 7, 2005 | Michelle Nichols

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CANBERRA (Reuters) - A Chinese diplomat who has sought political asylum in Australia and claims spies are hunting him for aiding pro-democracy groups has contacted a U.S. consulate about his situation, an official said on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy told Reuters that Chen Yonglin, a 37-year-old political affairs consul at China's consulate in Sydney, had contacted a U.S. consulate in Australia about his situation, but was unable to comment further.

Local media reported on Tuesday that Chen had asked if he could defect to the United States.

Chen, who has worked in Sydney for the past four years and is now in hiding with his wife, Jin Ping, 38, and six-year-old daughter, has also applied for an asylum seeker protection visa through Australia's immigration department.

Chen, who claims he would be persecuted by the Chinese government if he returned home, also wrote to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer asking for a rare "territorial asylum visa."

Downer, who is on a visit to India, told Australian radio that Chen's asylum plea would be considered on its merit.

"Whipping up a controversy about (Chen) is not going to make a contribution one way or another to this application. The application just had to be considered on its merits, on the facts of the case," Downer said.

He said he could only recall two cases where Australia had granted political asylum, one being the case of a senior diplomat from the former Soviet Union who defected in Australia in 1954 along with his wife.

The defections of Vladimir Mikhailovich Petrov and his wife Evdokia led to an extensive inquiry into Soviet espionage in Australia. Moscow withdrew its embassy from Australia and expelled Australian diplomats.

Downer didn't have details on the second case.

Chen told a rally in Sydney to mark the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests on Saturday that Beijing saw him as a threat because he offered help to democracy groups and Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong is an amalgam of religions, meditation and exercises that the Chinese government considers an evil cult. China's Ambassador to Australia, Madame Fu Ying, said on Monday that Chen just wanted Australian citizenship and laughed off his claims that Beijing has 1,000 spies in Australia and that he could be kidnapped and returned home.

Fu said Chen had no reason to fear returing to China.

"The Australian government asked me if he would be persecuted if he returned to China and I said that ... there will be no legal punishment, at least from what I see," she told Australian radio on Tuesday.

But when asked if she could guarantee he would not suffer any repercussions for his attempt to defect, Fu said: "Guarantee is not the word I would use because I will not be the person who will judge him."