2024-05-12 18:58:20
- in short:A former Chinese agent has revealed his past identity, revealing how the Chinese government suppresses dissent abroad.
- What happens next?Four Corners can reveal a Chinese intelligence agency was still operating in Sydney last year and its investigation is still ongoing.
A former agent has sparked outrage following a Four Corners investigation revealed the inner workings of China’s notorious secret police and how they hunt down dissidents overseas, including in Australia. Serious questions regarding Australia’s national security.
It is the first time that members of the secret police, the most terrifying and powerful branch of China’s intelligence agencies, have spoken publicly.
The investigation also found that the department conducted a sting operation on Australian soil last year and that an Australian resident secretly returned to China in 2019.
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Agents speak out
The agent, named Eric, worked as an undercover agent for a department of China’s national police and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security, from 2008 to early 2023.
Eric was a Bureau agent for 15 years. (Four Corners: Keana Naughton)
This department is called the Bureau of Political Security, or Bureau One for short. It is one of the Chinese Communist Party’s primary repressive tools, operating around the world to monitor, remove and silence critics of the Chinese Communist Party, particularly President Xi Jinping.
“It’s the darkest branch of the Chinese government,” Eric said.
“When dealing with people who oppose the Chinese Communist Party, they can act as if these people are not protected by the law. They can do with them whatever they want.”
For reasons of the 38-year-old’s safety, Four Corners has decided not to publish Eric’s full name or the identity of his secret police contact.
Eric fled China, arrived in Australia last year and revealed his past to Australia’s national spy agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO). ASIO declined to comment for this story.
The unit where Eric works is a major tool of repression for the Chinese Communist Party. (Reuters)
Eric revealed to Four Corners how China collects intelligence on those it considers enemies of the state and, in some cases, the tactics it uses to bring these people home for prosecution.
His superiors tasked him with tracking down dissidents around the world, sometimes using elaborate disguises – once as a real estate executive, another time as an anti-communist freedom fighter – to try to gain their trust and attract to countries where they can do so. being kidnapped and sent back to China.
Four Corners has seen hundreds of secret documents and letters that support Eric’s claims that his missions and targets involved China, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Canada and Australia.
“Secret Agents in Australia”
In 2023, Australian Federal Police raided Sydney and discovered a Chinese spying operation targeting Australian residents.
One of the people targeted by the campaign is Edwin Yin, a political activist whose online videos target President Xi and his daughter.
Mr Yin moved to Australia in 2018. (Four Corners: Keana Naughton)
Australian Federal Police spoke to Mr Yin following the raid.
“They told me… that they had dismantled an intelligence agency in Australia in an operation,” he said.
“Then I obtained documents, which are traces of the Chinese Communist Party in Australia looking for me through this intelligence agency.”
Four Corners understands the Australian Federal Police investigation is still ongoing.
In 2021, Mr Yin was assaulted in Melbourne, resulting in a broken nose. Mr Yin believes the two men who attacked him and the third man who filmed it were agents of the Chinese government.
“I feel like I’m not safe in Australia,” he said.
Surveillance video of Mr Yin attacked in 2021. (Victoria Police)
Eric was invited in 2018 to bring Yin Ke to Australia to Southeast Asia.
Eric told Four Corners he had no doubt that Chinese secret agents were currently operating in Australia and that they relied on a network of support organizations and companies.
“There has to be a support system in place so that when a secret agent comes to this place, they have some level of support,” he said.
“They definitely have a support system in place in Australia.”
China said it was seeking to expel Mr. Yin because he was accused of multiple counts of financial fraud. Four Corners spoke to one of Mr Yin’s alleged victims, who insisted the crimes were true.
Mr. Yin said he had been framed.
China’s global influence
Counterintelligence experts say “political security” is the biggest concern for China’s vast spy network.
Holden Triplett formerly headed the FBI office in Beijing and therefore frequently dealt with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
“The Department of Public Safety presents itself as a police department…but in my opinion it is anything but,” he said.
“Their job is to protect the position of the party… When I say position, I mean control… the party must maintain control.”
Under Xi Jinping, these controls have become even stricter. Since Xi Jinping became Chinese leader in 2012, he has restructured China’s security intelligence services and strengthened the party’s control over the Chinese diaspora.
Xi Jinping pays special attention to overseas Chinese. (PA)
“Now that they are heavily involved in global affairs, they need resources from all kinds of places,” Mr. Triplett said.
“So anyone in China or among the Chinese diaspora…who might threaten control of the party…is the target of their investigation, opposition, and, if necessary, destruction.”
The Ministry of Public Security works with other elements of China’s national security apparatus, including the Ministry of State Security, China’s external spy agency, and the United Front Work Department , the main branch of external influence of the Chinese Communist Party.
How China’s intelligence agencies suppress dissent.
The Department of United Front Work is responsible for increasing China’s influence overseas, and almost every country with a large Chinese population – including Australia – has community groups associated with the Department.
Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst, said: “United Front work is the tall grass where the snakes hide. »
“The Department of Public Safety is one of those snakes.”
repatriate citizens
Since 2014, Xi Jinping has used his anti-corruption campaigns Operation Fox Hunt and Operation Skynet to deport more than 12,000 so-called fugitives to China. Many were repatriated in covert operations, without the knowledge or authorization of local authorities.
As part of Operation Fox Hunt, two Chinese police officers secretly entered Australia in 2014 to track down and deport a Melbourne bus driver. The incident was made public the following year, sparking a major diplomatic incident and the Chinese government promising that such an incident would never happen once more.
In 2019, Chinese officials returned to Australia and took a 59-year-old Australian resident back to China.
Thousands of Chinese citizens have been expelled from their country. (Four corners)
“The Department of Public Safety sent agents… to Australia to have a so-called heart-to-heart with a woman and then persuade her to come back,” said Laura Harth, campaign director at the NGO human rights defense Safeguard Defenders. explain.
“They are using the Chinese (Australian) consulate general and embassy to help them.”
Four Corners confirmed that the Australian Federal Police approved the 2019 visit, but Chinese officials failed to follow agreed protocol and the woman was returned to China by them without Australian Federal Police approval.
Last month, Protective Defenders released a report documenting more than 280 cases of foreign citizens and residents deported to China. These individuals are accused of economic crimes.
According to the report, which draws on Chinese state media, at least 16 people were extrajudicially deported from Australia between 2014 and 2023, including four last year.
“These successful operations – and even unsuccessful trial operations – are blatant violations of Australia’s sovereignty,” Ms Haas said.
Chinese Embassy in Australia. (ABC News: Dylan Anderson)
“It’s a crime under Australian law,” she said.
“It is a crime for a foreign government or a person acting on behalf of a foreign government to threaten the multilingual community or any other person in Australia. This includes harassment, surveillance, intimidation and other coercive measures .”
An Australian government spokesperson said resisting malicious foreign interference was a “top priority”.
“Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies assess, investigate, disrupt and, where possible, prosecute acts of foreign interference.”
The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Australia and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.
Read more regarding Eric’s story later in Australian Corporate News. Please watch ‘Four Corners: Relentless Manhunt’ tonight at 8:30pm AEDT on ABC TV andABC iviewbroadcast of the channel.
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