Eleven days ago, Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin walked out of the Chinese consulate in Sydney and requested political asylum. He is currently in hiding somewhere in Australia, but in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald [Reg Req], he said that the Australian government had hung him out to dry, refusing his application and contacting the Chinese authorities. I guess trade really is more important than any commitment to human rights in Australia.
Mr Chen has a well-founded fear of persecution - if not for his going easy on dissidents and Falun Gong members while working in the consulate, then for his activities since. On Saturday he addressed a protest against the Tiananmen Square massacre in Sydney and criticised the Chinese government's human rights record; he also accused them of kidnapping dissidents from Australia. While China's ambassador to Canberra says he has nothing to fear if he returns, that is hardly believable given the Chinese government's brutal treatment of those who oppose it. Mr Chen has already been subjected to "re-education" once for speaking out against his government in Tiananmen Square sixteen years ago. It is unlikely they would be lenient with someone they view as a recidivist.
If Australia is too cowardly to grant asylum to someone fleeing a repressive regime, then we should step in. The New Zealand government should offer Mr Chen refuge here. As a nation supposedly committed to freedom, human rights, and helping those in need, we can hardly do anything less. Yes, it would be bailing out the Australians again, but as with the Tampa incident, it is also the right thing to do. And that should be all the reason we need.
He's for the labour and re-education camps if he goes back home. I really hope we take him and his wife and little girl.
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all surprised by this. The Howard government puts refugees in concentration camps; they're hardly likely to let a little thing like standing up for freedom get in the way of trade with China.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, though, our government will behave differently.
Let me do some research on this.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what bullshit the Australian and Chinese government spout about Chen's chances of persecution, the decision will ultimately be made by a refugee status determination officer who actually (unlike the Howard government) knows how to apply the Refugee Convention, and who knows that it is their job to uphold international human rights law. They don't have any Tampa/Zaoui-style excuses, or reasons to detain: Chen is in the country already, and there legally. If Chen is declined at his first instance determination, it really will be a sign that the Australian system has collapsed. And then maybe we will need to form a 'flying squad' - to airlift him out.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of bullshit, wasn't Chen's allegation of Chinese spy kidnapping a Victoria man proven as such?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1422324.htm
"An Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer has told a Senate hearing that no evidence was found to support claims by Chinese defector Chen Yonglin about an abduction of a Chinese man."
Based on Chen's claim in support of his political asylum bid, AU gvt did the right thing to reject his application.
It is also understandable why Chen received a humanitarian protction visa. If not this face saving measure, AU gvt would have to send Checn back to China, to face security charges (something our own government workers would face under the same circumstances.)
But of course, when it comes to China, it's persecution.
Come on.