Jasmine Sun: China poison mystery case referred to Department of Home Affairs

Home Affairs has been flooded with reports alleging a property investor living in a small NSW town changed her name and date of birth to enter Australia after being accused of a deadly poisoning.

Jasmine Sun in Port Stephens. Picture: Liam Mendes

The Department of Home Affairs has been flooded with reports alleging a property investor living in a small NSW town changed her name and date of birth to enter Australia after emerging as a possible suspect in a mysterious and deadly poisoning that has captivated millions in China for 30 years.

Online campaigners, mostly based in China, have filed hundreds of reports to the Border Watch Online Report system, alleging the woman, known as Shiyan “Jasmine” Sun, had entered Australia on a false name and date of birth.

Last week The Australian revealed Ms Sun is now living on the NSW Central Coast after she was accused of poisoning her university roommate in China in the mid-1990s.

There have been calls for Ms Sun to be deported to China to face questions of the almost 30-year-old case, which returned to prominence in China in December after the poisoning victim, Zhu Ling, died.

Since Zhu’s death, the Border Watch Online Report system has been inundated with hundreds of reports.

Thallium poisoning victim Zhu Ling, who passed away in December almost three decades after she was first poisoned. Pictured in 2013 with her parents. Picture: Supplied.

“Use the form below to report suspicious or illegal immigration, visa, Customs and trade activity,” the form reads. “We take all reports of suspicious activity seriously and you can choose to remain anonymous.”

Social media users in China have been uploading guides on how to make the report. One guide posted at the end of December on Xiaohongshu, China’s equivalent of Instagram, received more than 20,000 likes before it was taken down by censors.

“Zhu Ling, we are still here, I saw here today you can go to the Australian government official website to report Sun Wei ­online. It has been submitted. I’ve contributed my part,” one person posted.

Campaigners and fellow students identified Shiyan Sun as Sun Wei, the woman accused of poisoning Zhu after allegedly becoming jealous of her university roommate’s talent, popularity and love life.

Zhu Ling's before she was poisoned.

Previous reporting included claims Ms Sun wasn’t prosecuted due to the Chinese Communist Party links to her grandfather, Sun Yueqi, a high-ranking official, and another relative, a former vice-mayor of Beijing.

Ms Sun said her grandfather had died by the time she was questioned by police.

Campaigners claim she changed her name, and even her birth date, to shed her previous life as Sun Wei, who was studying chemistry at the university and is believed to have had access to thallium, the highly toxic metal used in Zhu’s poisoning.

On Saturday, The Weekend Australian revealed Chinese ­social media networks were scrambling to censor posts about The Australian’s revelations in the three-decade-long mystery.

Popular social media websites such as Weibo have banned users for making posts containing “illegal content”, and users were also banned from sending private messages to each other.

“When Netizen post Zhu’s case in Chinese social media, couple of minutes later, the posts are ­disappeared without notifying, they also banned netizen from ­private messaging!” one posted on a Western social media platform. “Also, many netizens’ ID was also blocked permanently!”

A Home Affairs Department spokesperson said they could not comment due to privacy reasons.