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June 12, 2005
what's the problem
Trade and political asylum are two separate and distinct areas the Howard Government keeps telling us troubled citizens. So why do they get all tied up in knots about giving appropriate protection to the former Chinese government official Chen Yonglin?
It is a pretty open and shut case. Is not China a politically repressive regime that detests the formation of democratic opinion? As Andrew Bartlett observes Chinese people continue to seek asylum in Australia. Is it not a matter of standing up for democracy and against persecution. What is so difficult about that?
Why the stonewalling on this? Is this why?
Michelle Grattan in The Age has a go at answering these questions. More commentary by John Quiggin. Excellent commentary and lots of links can be found over at DogsfightAtBankstown. Saint says that "all that [government] obfuscation was really just to avoid upsetting China."
That stonewalling----the application will be treated on its merits, in the normal way, individually---means that diplomat Chen Yonglin and the policeman Hao Fengjun are in hiding, due to fears for their safety after both said China was operating a spy ring in Australia and was persecuting members of the Falun Gong spiritual group.
It's a bloody disgrace. There is no other way of putting it.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at June 12, 2005 06:38 PM
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» SERIOUS THREATS OR JUST FALSE BRAVADO? from Senator Andrew Bartlett
One of the main consequential issues which is now being debated in the mainstream media and on the internet is the way the Chinese government treats people it thinks may disagree with it – not just in China, but in other countries too. [Read More]
Tracked on June 13, 2005 02:24 PM
Comments
Remember Gordon Gekko and the eighties "Greed is good" credo.
Well, we've left that all well behind, now Greed is everything.
A sad, frightened little world we have woven for ourselves.
Posted by: BigBob at June 13, 2005 06:04 PM