Chinese Students Disrupt Lecture by Former Diplomat Chen Yonglin

MELBOURNE - When Chen Yonglin spoke at a lecture on political asylum at Australia’s Melbourne University, it was not what he said but what he was not permitted to say that illustrated for Western audience members the repression and control the Chinese government is able to wield over its citizens even tens of thousands of miles away from Beijing.

The lecture featured speakers Klaus Neumann of the 2004 Human Rights Award Winner Refuge Australia and the former diplomat Chen Yonglin, who defected from the Chinese Communist Party in June. Chen Yonglin aroused a strong reaction from the nearly 400 people, over half of whom were Chinese. 　

The moment Chen Yonglin stood up to speak, Chinese students tried to force him to leave, shouting and whistling provocatively. They called him “Traitor”, “Liar” and told him “Get out of here.”

When he defected in June, Chen Yonglin reported the facts of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of political dissidents and Falun Gong members and revealed a 1,000-person international spy ring operating in Australia. The Chinese government and consulate has responded by attempting to defame Chen Yonglin.　

Students who were heckling Chen Yonglin did not respond to the pleas of coordinator Dr. Antonia Finnane or western students attempting to listen to Chen’s speech. Instead, students continued to swear at Chen Yonglin, shouting and whistling at him continuously.

As two students left at the request of the coordinator, they shouted “I love my motherland” arousing applause among the audience. Even after they left, other students continued to interrupt Chen Yonglin, making it impossible for him to finish a sentence. When Chen Yonglin said that his father was persecuted to death in the Cultural Revolution, somebody shouted, “Give us the evidence,” and “You are lying!”

Chen Yonglin said that one student in the lecture hall is the head of a Chinese students association, which has a very close relationship with the Chinese Consulate.

One Western student said that while he did not hear what he had expected, the Chinese students’ reactions demonstrated for him the fear and terror that grips non-democratic countries. He said it convinced him that Australia was right to offer Chen Yonglin protection. The student asked if Chinese students in Australia would not even let him speak, how could he not be persecuted when he returned?　　　　

While The Chinese students fear the truth Chen Yonglin has revealed to the world, what the students should really fear is the level of control and terror the Chinese government drummed up to cause the Cultural Revolution then and justify it now.