Chinese diplomat seeks asylum in Australia

Australia will consider a Chinese diplomat’s request for political asylum on its merits, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said today.

Chen Yonglin, 37, the consul for political affairs at the consulate-general in Sydney, said yesterday that he had walked out of the mission a week ago.

He was speaking at a Sydney rally to commemorate the June 4, 1989, crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing.

“I feel very unsafe,” Chen told the rally of several hundred. “In 16 years, the Chinese government has done nothing for political reform. People have no political freedom, no human rights.”

Chen’s asylum request comes at a time when Canberra is in negotiations with Beijing over a possible multi-billion-dollar free-trade deal between Australia and China.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone told television’s Ten Network that Chen, who is in hiding with his wife and six-year-old daughter, would get no special consideration from Canberra.

“Any of these applications are handled individually and they’re handled on their merit and this one will be handled in the normal way,” she said.

In a statement issued today, China’s Consul-General accused Chen of claiming asylum purely to remain in Australia.

“To achieve the aim of staying in Australia, Chen Yonglin fabricated stories, which are unfounded and purely fictitious,” a spokesman for the Chinese Consul-General Qiu Shaofang said.