The defection of Chinese consular official Chen Yonglin in Australia has shed light on human rights abuses in China and aggressive spying tactics, among other issues.
Former Pentagon official Dan Blumenthal told Australian TV that, regarding human rights abuses in China during the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, “That’s of a lot of concern to the American people, both inside the administration and also in the Congress and the public at large.”
Blumenthal, now a think-tank analyst, was the Pentagon’s senior director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Secretary of Defense’s Office of International Security Affairs 2002-2004.
"We do know that Chinese espionage activities are very active in the United States" |
“We do know that Chinese espionage activities are very active in the United States,” Blumenthal said in the interview. “We do know that the Chinese are very interested in dissidents and Falun Gong and others.”
On Chen’s pending request for asylum in Australia, to which Australia has been slow to respond, Blumenthal noted that Chen would probably already have been given asylum if the defection had happened in the U.S.
“Congress here would be pushing very hard to provide him with protection status or asylum,” Dan Blumenthal told Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Lateline program.
Blumenthal was quoted on the ABC web site as saying that the Chen case, and Australia’s relationship with China in general, are being watched intently in Washington.
“Americans have been watching Australia’s relationship with China pretty closely,” he told the TV network.
Chen served as First Secretary in the Chinese consulate until his defection on May 26. He shocked public opinion in Australia by revealing that he had controlled a network of 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia. Two other Chinese defectors have since corroborated Chen’s account, and also given accounts of large spy networks in Canada and the U.S.
At a press conference in Sydney last week, Chen described how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to gain greater influence over Australia and drive a wedge between the U.S. and its ally Australia.
Chen described how the CCP wished to make Australia part of its sphere of influence, a part of China’s “greater border region.”
Sharing information from a high-level meeting, Chen said, “The CCP wants to break through the military union of the two countries and turn Australia into a second France. It hopes to shape Australia into a country that dares to say ‘no’ to the United States.”
Chen also gave a detailed account of an abduction carried out inside Australia by Chinese spies, which was only one of many that he was aware of.
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