Not lengthy after we first met, the person mentioned that if Australia was on the lookout for Chinese language spies, he was simply the kind of individual they’d be — however the authorities would by no means “dare say I’m Chinese intelligence.”
Given the anti-China fervor in Australia, he acknowledged he might come off as suspicious. So why would he not get into bother with the authorities? He believed that it could be embarrassing for Australia to accuse of him of spying as a result of he had been an energetic member of a serious political social gathering.
His confidence was absolute, and totally misplaced. Lower than two years later, in 2020, he turned the primary individual to be charged beneath Australia’s broad overseas interference legal guidelines. He was accused of appearing on behalf of Beijing.
Who was the suspect?
Di Sanh “Sunny” Duong, 68, was born and raised in Vietnam. He was among the many tons of of hundreds of ethnic Chinese language who fled that nation within the Seventies. He settled in Australia and grew a enterprise making tombstones, secured a middle-class life and obtained enmeshed in native Chinese language neighborhood teams.
I first interviewed him in 2019 and shortly realized that Mr. Duong was vulnerable to boasting — about his travels, about his household and about his standing in society, a lot in order that it was tough to take him significantly.
What did he do?
The case in opposition to Mr. Duong was not about what he did, however what he was planning on doing. Mr. Duong had ties with the Chinese language Communist Occasion, prosecutors mentioned. He had invited an Australian authorities minister to a charity occasion, they added, with the intention of sometime attempting to affect him on behalf of Beijing.
Throughout the trial, the jury was offered with two variations of Mr. Duong: Was he a savvy operator pushing China’s agenda in Australia, because the prosecution would have it, or was he, because the protection claimed, a bombastic braggart?
What was the decision?
Mr. Duong didn’t testify in court docket. However whereas the trial was underway, he met me, at a pub a stone’s throw from the courthouse, to share his story.
He gave outlandish and convoluted causes for the actions that prosecutors constructed their case round. One head-spinning episode concerned how Mr. Duong thought he was interacting with a Chinese language intelligence officer however later concluded, due to a TV present, that the official was not a spy. One factor was clear: Mr. Duong remained adamant that he by no means did something in opposition to Australian pursuits.
The jury disagreed. In December, he was discovered responsible of getting ready for or planning an act of overseas interference. Late final month, a decide sentenced him to 2 years and 9 months in jail. Mr. Duong is predicted to serve a 12 months behind bars.
