ASIO bans Chinese ‘agents’ after foreign interference probe of journalists and academics
Six Chinese citizens believed to have engaged in espionage or foreign interference are either denied re-entry to Australia or leave.
Six Chinese citizens believed to have engaged in espionage or foreign interference in Australia have either been denied re-entry into the country or have left after being questioned by intelligence agencies.
Two academics were offshore when the Australian government cancelled their visas, effectively preventing them from returning to the country, while four Chinese journalists left Australia after being spoken to by ASIO.
The intelligence service’s actions targeting foreign interference come amid high tension between Canberra and Beijing.
Chinese media revealed the June 26 “raids’’ on the Chinese journalists on Wednesday, a day after it emerged that two Australian reporters were forced to flee China after being interviewed by security services.
The two academics to have had their visas cancelled and been denied re-entry to Australia are Chinese scholar and media commentator Chen Hong and Australian studies scholar Li Jianjun. Two Chinese journalists, the Australia bureau chief of China News Service, Tao Shelan, and China Radio International’s Sydney bureau chief, Li Dayong, have also left Australia after ASIO questioning.
The Australian has established there were a further two Chinese journalists who also left the country under similar circumstances.
It is understood the four journalists were not spies inserted into Australia, posing as reporters, but journalists who had become engaged in espionage or foreign interference.
Unlike the Chinese Ministry for Security, which has a practice of harassing and detaining journalists, ASIO has never used detention powers against a journalist. A national security source strongly rejected any comparison with China in the way security agencies in Australia conducted their investigations.
“On every level, any comparison between the way security agencies work in Australia and China is patently absurd and thoroughly offensive,” the source said.
It is believed the foreign interference investigation was linked to NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane amid concerns the Chinese Communist Party attempted to infiltrate state parliament through his office. The Chinese nationals were involved in what Mr Moselmane has described as a “friendly chat group”, but which authorities allege was used to influence the state upper house MP.
Mr Moselmane is not the subject of the foreign interference investigation; he has only been linked to some individuals who are subjects of the investigation.
Professor Chen, of East China Normal University, told The Australian that he and Professor Li, who is from Beijing Foreign Studies University, had been banned from returning to Australia.
“I received a notification from Home Affairs in early August,” Professor Chen said.
The letter, obtained by The Australian, said: “On 24 July 2020 the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation assessed you to be directly or indirectly a risk to security within the meaning of section 4 of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisations Act 1979.”
Chinese state media revealed on Wednesday that Australian security services had carried out “raids” on Chinese journalists in Sydney on June 26. That same day, Australian Federal Police agents raided properties linked to Mr Moselmane and his part-time staffer John Zhang as part of a joint investigation with ASIO.
The Chinese government revealed the intelligence action the day after it emerged Michael Smith from The Australian Financial Review and Bill Birtles from the ABC had sheltered in diplomatic compounds in Beijing and Shanghai for four days while diplomats negotiated their exit from the country. It was also revealed on Wednesday that Australian broadcaster Cheng Lei, who works for the state-owned China Global Television Network and has been detained in China, was charged with endangering China’s security.
The Global Times said the ASIO raids “severely infringed on the legitimate rights of Chinese journalists, and … exposed Australia’s hypocrisy in upholding so-called freedom of the press.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian attacked the action by Australia’s intelligence agencies. Four journalists were “interrogated … on the grounds of a possible breach of Australia’s anti-foreign interference laws”, he said.
He said they were questioned and had had their phones, computers and even their children’s tablets confiscated.
An international group of MPs from democratic nations criticised China for bullying Australia through trade sanctions and its “decision to force out the last two remaining accredited Australian media journalists”.
“Democratic countries must be clear that such coercive diplomacy is unacceptable and has no place in a rules-based international order,” the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said.
Former ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson said there was no equivalence in the treatment of Birtles and Smith by Chinese security services, and the questioning of Chinese journalists by Australian agents.
“Foreign journalists in China are being systematically harassed and … those that have left China have ever done so out of concern for their own safety, or they have been expelled by the Chinese,” Mr Richardson said. “You need to have a look at what has happened to the Australian journalist in that context. The only context in Australia is the legitimate investigations by Australian authorities in respect to possible foreign interference in our political system.”
Professor Chen said he did not accept the ASIO assessment, arguing he had promoted stronger ties between the countries since 1987. “I have never done anything and will never do anything to be of a threat to Australia,” he said.
Professor Chen was part of a Chinese embassy-sponsored delegation that visited Australia last September and accused the Coalition government and “anti-China forces” in Australia of undermining the bilateral relationship and prejudicing other countries against China.
Documents lodged by Mr Zhang’s legal team in a High Court challenge to the search warrants said police had narrowed their inquiries onto a “private social media chat group” in which Mr Zhang was thought to be advancing “the interests and policy goals of a foreign principal, being the Chinese government”.
Professor Chen claimed the group had been used to organise a meal with Mr Moselmane and his Mr Zhang. Mr Moselmane has repeatedly denied any role in the national security investigation.
More Coverage
Federal Labor on a collision course with miners over green push
The federal government has made a powerful enemy for itself in the west after the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA said it would fight Labor’s push for so-called nature-positive laws.
More undergraduates signing up for teaching: Labor
The federal government has released new data showing more undergraduates are applying to become school teachers than in previous years, as it works to tackle the nation’s crippling teacher shortage.