The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has invited Chinese police to Australia for an enforcement cooperation meeting while confirming that it will end an agreement with China over human rights concerns.
“At the invitation of the Australian Federal Police, from April 25 to 28, 2023, the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China sent a delegation to visit Australia to hold the tenth annual meeting of the China-Australia Law Enforcement Cooperation Working Group with the Australian Federal Police,” reads a statement in Chinese on the website of China’s embassy in Australia.
“In a friendly and pragmatic atmosphere, the two sides reviewed and summarized the situation of China-Australia law enforcement cooperation since the last meeting, deeply analyzed the situation of transnational crimes, and reached broad consensus on bilateral law enforcement cooperation for the next year.”
According to the statement, the two sides have successfully carried out several special operations against transnational crimes and cracked down on criminal gangs. They also agreed to cooperate in the following areas:
Maintain high-level and working-level communication.
Strengthen law enforcement cooperation in combating economic crimes.
Strengthen cooperation in cracking down on telecommunications and network fraud.
Strengthen cybersecurity law enforcement cooperation.
Strengthen cooperation in combating drug crimes.
Chinese and the Australian police hold the tenth annual meeting of the China-Australia Law Enforcement Cooperation Working Group with the AFP. (China’s embassy in Australia)
During their stay in Australia, the delegation also communicated with the New South Wales Police on “combating telecommunications fraud, virtual kidnapping, and protecting the personal and property safety of overseas Chinese and Chinese-funded institutions.
Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat who defected to Australia in 2005, said he was concerned that “the so-called law enforcement cooperation between the two sides has gone far beyond normal international anti-drug and anti-money laundering cooperation.”
“The so-called ”exchange and cooperation platforms“ established by both sides have crossed over normal channels of diplomatic relations,” Chen said.
“While Australian Federal Police offices are located in Australian embassies and consulates in China, Chinese police stations attempt to be located in Chinese communities or operate independently of embassies and consulates. to be not bound by diplomatic and consular conventions, violating Australia’s sovereignty and having no respect for the law.
“In other areas, such as cybersecurity, the two sides simply do not have a common language, as the CCP’s main enemy on the internet is free speech expresses. As for other consular protection functions involving Chinese enterprises and Chinese citizens, they are the original business of embassies and consulates and do not require the intervention of public security authorities. Therefore, the Australian Federal Police should adhere to the principles of its function and not overstep its authority to act for China.”
AFP to End Agreement with China
This comes just one month prior to the AFP confirming it would not renew an agreement signed with China amid international human rights groups’ human rights concerns.
AFP officials told the Senate on May. 25 that the agency would not renew its memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with China’s National Commission of Supervision (NCS) in December 2018, which will expire at the end of this year.
Asked by Senator James Paterson on the basis of the AFP’s decision, Ian McCartney, Deputy Commissioner for the AFP, said there had been a change in the bilateral relationship with China.
“In effect, we didn’t see the requirement for that to continue,” McCartney said. “There was minimal interaction with that agency in relation to the work that we do.”
Australia’s MOU with China has long raised concerns of human rights groups, which alleged that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been trying to establish the legitimacy of its national watchdog as a global legal partner through such cooperation agreements.
Ian McCartney, Deputy Commissioner for the AFP, confirmed the agency will not renew its agreement signed with China's NCS. (Screenshot/The Epoch Times)
The NCS in China is responsible for Xi Jinping’s reprehensive “FoxHunt operation” across 120 countries and regions, which violates the national and judicial sovereignty of countries across the world, and guilty of a crime against humanity through its Liuzhi system for enforced disappearances, according to Safeguard Defenders, an international human rights group.
Based on a report titled “Transnational Repression Is a Growing Threat to Global Democracy”, released by Freedom House in February 2021, the CCP seeks to change international norms in the name of the “FoxHunt operation,” extending its targeting to political opponents and dissidents worldwide.
In 2014, Melbourne resident Dong Feng, a practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice persecuted in China, was “persuaded” by the Chinese police to return to China to face a court.
Australian officials were not notified about the matter beforehand, which compelled the former Abbott government to summon Chinese diplomats to meet and for officials to express their “deep concerns” over the “unacceptable” undercover operation.
Defence Expert Concerned About AFP’s Closeness with Beijing
The AFP’s close relationship with Chinese police was criticized by defence expert Michael Shoebridge.
Michael Shoebridge, director of defence, strategy and at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. (Supplied)
“The relationship between the AFP and Chinese law enforcement agencies is now out of step with the shifts in Chinese state behaviour and direction over the last five years,” Shoebridge, who runs Strategic Analysis Australia, previously told The Epoch Times. “It’s a policing relationship that must be reassessed.”
“That’s shown by the recently-revealed presence of Chinese ‘overseas police outreach’ operations in more than 80 cities across the world, including Australia,” he said, referring to the Safeguard Defenders’ 2022 report, “110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild.”
While these stations serve administrative purposes on the surface, such as extending China’s driving licenses and processing official documents, they have a “more sinister goal, as they contribute to ‘resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese,’” the Safeguard Defenders report said.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the AFP for comment on the enforcement cooperation meeting.
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