Former Chinese diplomatic defector Chen Yonglin has made public three documents, which he says show the Australian Chinese community is being spied on, and said that Chinese officials have approached Sydney councils to get them to restrict the activities of dissidents, and in particular, Falun Gong practitioners.
Councils were asked to remove Falun Gong advertisements and reject the group's application to participate in festivals, he said.
"The Consulate senior officials will host dinners for them or meeting them in(sic) some occasions and ask them to help on the issue of ... Falun Gong," Mr. Chen told reporters.
He said there was "a lot of success" in pressuring local councils because "some of these councils want to develop closer relations with ... China and Chinese cities."
The Chinese Consulate approached Sydney City Council earlier this year in an effort to stop Falun Gong practitioners formally participating in Chinese New Year celebrations but were told to approach organisers, Mr Chen claimed.
Speaking at a press conference that was held before a community meeting in suburban Sydney, Chen thanked Australian people for the support that they had given his family in the last few weeks.
Mr. Chen was granted a permanent protection visa last week after abandoning his post at the Chinese Consulate-General six weeks ago in Sydney. The Australian government at first refused him protection and informed the Chinese Consulate in Sydney that he was attempting to defect.
This forced the Chens to go into hiding until last week, when public pressure forced the Australian government to issue him with a permanent protection visa.
Mr. Chen said that while he had been granted a visa and felt safer than he had previously, he still felt that he and his family had to be cautious, because there was still a possibility that he could be kidnapped.
At the time he said there was a network of 1000 Chinese spies operating in Australia and he feared for his life if he was forced to return to China.
A second defector and former 610 officer, Hao Fengjun, has backed Mr. Chen's claims of spying within Australia.
Mr. Chen today showed three Consulate-General documents with information allegedly provided by informants.
One document tracks the movements of a female Falun Gong practitioner in Australia, while another provides an organisational breakdown of the local Falun Gong spiritual practice.
The third document is written on a Chinese Embassy letterhead and says the names of 300 Falun Gong practitioners would be forwarded to the consulate.
Mr. Chen says the names provided by informants would be put on a blacklist in the consulate.
"In the Chinese community there are a lot of informants, of course," Mr. Chen told reporters.
"Today I don't want to publicise all these names (of informants), I just want to warn these people to stop doing that.
"I want to tell these informants from the bottom of my heart I look down upon them."
He said that he did not want to harm the families of informants by naming them, but said that there is the likelihood of further defections, and the documentation eventually becoming public, and he said “they could be charged by Australian police”.
Mr. Chen also reiterated claims that China wanted to drive a wedge between Australia and the United States.
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