SYDNEY - The day after thirteen Chinese detainees at Australia’s Villawood Detention Center attempted suicide, the Refugee Action Coalition hosted a rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park to call on the Australian government to give fair treatment to all refugee applicants. Former Chinese diplomat Mr. Chen Yonglin, who walked out of the Chinese consulate a few weeks ago, unexpectedly showed up at the rally. This was the first time Chen has appeared in public since appearing at a memorial rally for the Tiananmen Square Massacre two weeks ago.

Chen first thanked the Australian public and media for the overwhelming support they had given him over the past few weeks. He said that while people today are paying attention to Australia’s refugees, they should also look at mainland China, still under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) autocratic rule. He said that there are many Chinese people who have become refugees because of the CCP’s autocratic rule.

“Now I would like people to look at China, what is happening in China. It’s really serious. A lot of people now look at China. They see that the economy is growing. But for human rights, democracy, there is no democracy in China. There is no freedom of religion in China. From what I know, there are about 60 thousand Falun Gong practitioners currently being persecuted in China.”

Chen said that he had worked for the CCP’s political machine for more than ten years. He personally witnessed how the CCP persecutes its own people in order to protect its regime. Chen said, “Communism is imported from the Western world and then used against the Chinese people. We don’t want it any more.”

Chinese diplomat defector Mr. Chen Yonglin appearing at the World Refugee Day rally. (The Epoch Times) High-resolution image (600 x 400 pixels, 72 dpi)

Chen also said there would be many more refugees fleeing China in the near future. “The Chinese people’s best option is to change the political system in China in order to solve the root of the refugee problem in China. Democracy in China now! Human rights for China! Freedom of religion for China! Thank you.”