There is something rotten going on in Australia. The people of Australia should thank Mr. Chen Yonglin for bringing out into the open the dealings of Canberra with Beijing. The former first secretary of the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney who sought asylum in Australia on May 27 has placed a disturbing pattern of Australian behavior within its proper context: Beijing’s desire to have influence over Canberra, and Canberra’s desire to place economic gain before all other considerations.

In a press conference on June 22 in Sydney, Mr. Chen explained how Beijing wished to woo Australia away from economic, political and military alliance with the United States. The big prize Beijing had to offer: a gigantic contract for natural gas.

Canberra came running. What Canberra had to offer was not just the natural gas Beijing was willing to pay top dollar for. Canberra was also eager to throw into the deal its formerly critical stand on human rights in China, its military alliance with Taiwan, and the protection of the rights and liberties of Australian citizens and residents.

Just over three years ago Alexander Downer, Australia’s Minster of Foreign Affairs, began the curious practice of each month signing an order restricting the civil liberties of Australians. Falun Gong practitioners had been in the habit of peacefully appealing across the street from the Chinese Embassy in Canberra. They would hold up signs that would educate passers-by to the human rights atrocities inflicted on Falun Gong in China, and would use amplified music to accompany Falun Gong’s slow motion exercises. But each and every month since March 2002 with the stroke of his pen Mr. Downer would make holding up signs or playing amplified music across from the Chinese Embassy illegal.

Zhang Cuiyang, a Falun Gong practitioner who had survived one of China’s horrendous labor camps and managed to escape to Australia, sued Jiang Zemin, then the head of the Chinese Communist Party in China, for genocide and crimes against humanity. What role did the Australian government play?

Did it take a stand against the massive human rights abuses in China, filing a brief as a friend of the court on her side? Did it adopt a stand of strict neutrality, allowing the Australian legal system to sort out the merits of Ms. Zhang’s case? No, the appeasers in Canberra sought various stratagems to help Ms. Zhang’s suit go away, finally giving the tyrants of Beijing legal advice on how to avoid her suit.

Just last week 13 refugees from China who were seeking asylum in Australia attempted suicide together. The source of their despair: the violation by the government in Canberra of the rights guaranteed them under the U.N. treaty governing refugees.

Canberra had violated that treaty by arranging for Chinese government officials to have private interviews with each refugee. The refugees were told the interviews were what the Chinese government required. Moreover, the Chinese officials were provided with all of the refugees identifying documents—passports, visas, marriage certificates, and even their applications for protection visas. After the interviews with the Chinese officials, Canberra held the helpless refugees for over two weeks in isolation, refusing them the use of any means of communication with the outside world.

These refugees were ordinary Chinese seeking to escape life under the Chinese Communist Party. They were not Falun Gong practitioners, but they understood all too well the meaning of Canberra’s betrayal of them to the CCP. Upon being returned to China, they would face certain punishment. If somehow they should escape return to China, their families would be held as hostages. Their hopes of getting free from the CCP’s tyranny had been dashed by Canberra’s eagerness to violate its own laws—the U.N. treaty it had ratified- and its most sacred duty, to offer protection to those who are most vulnerable.

The examples of Canberra’s appeasement could be stacked ever higher, beginning with the curious treatment of the brave Mr. Chen and his fellow public defector, the former Chinese policeman Mr. Hao Fengjun. Both Mr. Chen and Mr. Hao brought with them extraordinary information about the Chinese spies operating in Australia and other Western democracies, yet Canberra has seemed not to know what to do with them. To date it has made no serious effort even to debrief them, and neither has been offered asylum.

Canberra has exported natural gas to China, but along with some hard currency it has imported corruption. It has sold such principles as the rule of law and the protection of individual rights. This is the price Australia has had to pay for doing business with the CCP.

The people of Australia are the victims of this sordid mess. We can only hope the warning Chen Yonglin has given them will wake them up, and they will see that Australia gets set on a better path.