10jun05

A Queensland man has told how Chinese Government officials attempted to recruit him as a spy while he was studying in Brisbane.

Yunsheng Ji, 46, yesterday lent support to the claims of two Chinese defectors - who have alleged there is a network of spies operating in Australia - saying he was offered a "big salary" in 1989 to work as a secret operative under the guise of a student.

As a then Communist Party member and son of a prominent local party official from the southern province of Guangdong, Mr Ji believes he was targeted after lodging a student visa application because of his political ties.

Mr Ji, who waited until the eve of his departure for Australia to reject the offer, said an "old friend" - a former army officer who worked in national security - was used to tempt him into espionage.

"I applied for a visa to study English in Australia and that is when my friend came to me saying he had a proposal that would give me a very good income," Mr Ji said. "He said that once in Australia, they wanted me to supply them with information. He spoke very generally about reporting on the customs and lifestyle and I didn't ask for details.

"But he was very clear and warned me that the Australian Government must not know."

Mr Ji, disgusted with the Tiananmen Square massacre only weeks before, said he never seriously considered the offer. But he didn't say anything and his travel approval was fast-tracked.

"I was very scared that if I said no I would get into trouble," the abattoir worker said from his modest home in inner Brisbane. "I got my visa, my two levels of police approval to travel out of the country and then, on the night before I was to leave, I was called to another meeting with my friend.

"It was only then that I told him that I couldn't do it, that I believed if I took the offer that it would never end."

Mr Ji, who applied for refugee status in Australia but was later given residency on the basis of his marriage to wife Lam, said he thought he would have been called to spy on fellow Chinese students.

"There were spies among the Chinese students in Brisbane. I can't prove it but I know in my heart that some were working for the Chinese Government," he said.

The activities of Chinese students, and that of the Falun Gong spiritual movement of which Mr Ji is an "occasional practitioner", were named by two defectors presently seeking political asylum in Australia as targets of an alleged network of Chinese spies.

Queensland leaders of Falun Gong said their organisation had been infiltrated by spies and members had been threatened in recent years.

Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin remained in hiding yesterday as speculation grew over investigations into his claims that Beijing had 1000 spies in Australia.

Mr Chen and a second defector, Hao Fengjun, say they have handed immigration authorities evidence China is persecuting its citizens.

Prime Minister John Howard played down suggestions trade relations were affecting how the Government was handling the defection cases.

"That visa application (Chen) will be treated strictly on its merits," he said.