Who Australia Caught When It Went In search of Chinese language Spies

The cops requested the person what he meant when he mentioned that involving an Australian authorities minister in a charity occasion may gain advantage “us Chinese.” Was he speaking about mainland China and the Chinese language Communist Occasion, or the native Australian Chinese language neighborhood? Relying on the reply, he confronted as much as 10 years in jail.

“You are understanding the Chinese is China. We always say, ‘I’m Chinese,’ that not mean, ‘I’m mainland China,’” mentioned the person, Di Sanh “Sunny” Duong, who was introduced in for questioning.

The officer pressed on, in keeping with a tape performed for a jury. Was Mr. Duong successfully constructing a relationship with the minister, “who you thought would be the future prime minister, to support the views of the Chinese?” One other officer requested, “Mainland China?”

When Australia’s broad-stroke overseas interference legal guidelines had been handed practically six years in the past amid rising issues about covert Chinese language authorities meddling in Western democracies, they had been heralded as trailblazing by america and different nations. Blockbuster prosecutions revealing subtle ways gave the impression to be simply across the nook.

However the first case, Mr. Duong’s, got here to trial solely in November, and it was, by all accounts, a low-stakes affair. It concerned throwing the burden of the Australian authorities in opposition to a suburban tombstone maker over diverging interpretations of two phrases (“us Chinese”), and a $25,000 donation to a neighborhood hospital that — prosecutors mentioned — would in some unspecified time in the future have change into the premise for a pro-China pitch to an area member of Parliament.

In December, a jury discovered Mr. Duong, 68, responsible of making ready for or planning an act of overseas interference. Late final month, a decide sentenced him to 2 years and 9 months in jail. He’s anticipated to serve a yr behind bars.

Whereas the case acquired far much less consideration from Australian media than the passage of the interference legal guidelines, it has change into a cautionary story for the nation’s giant diaspora communities — practically a 3rd of its inhabitants was born abroad. In principle, the brand new legal guidelines had been an effort to defend democracy in opposition to overseas affect. In follow, they’ve raised robust questions on when such intentions would possibly drift into xenophobia or wasteful effort.

Mr. Duong didn’t testify on the trial and his attorneys didn’t name any witnesses. However in his solely in-depth interview since his arrest, with The New York Instances, he mentioned that his patriotism towards China by no means conflicted along with his loyalty to Australia and its pursuits. He noticed himself as a scapegoat of geopolitical tensions, saying his prosecution was supposed to ship a message: “Don’t walk too close to China.”

For some consultants, Mr. Duong’s case, which began amid a diplomatic deep freeze between China and Australia and concluded as relations thawed, raised issues that he had been successfully discovered responsible by affiliation. To others, his interactions with Chinese language officers had been plain proof that he was working for Beijing.

Mr. Duong had a bent to speak himself up. He bragged concerning the mundane, like his travels, and boasted of the ties he had constructed with officers in each Australia and China.

Born and raised in Vietnam, he fled in 1979, one of many a whole bunch of 1000’s of ethnic Chinese language who left the nation. After cobbling collectively a middle-class life in Australia, he usually sought to painting himself as a person on the rise. He ran unsuccessfully as a candidate within the conservative Liberal Occasion in a state election in 1996. He labored his means up via the ranks of native Chinese language neighborhood teams, finally turning into the No. 2 of the International Federation of Chinese language Organizations from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, an umbrella group with chapters around the globe, in addition to the president of its Oceania department.

The teams, he mentioned, allowed him to attach with officers in China, and to mingle with native Australian politicians and officers on the Chinese language consulate in Melbourne, which didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the case.

Greater than a yr earlier than his arrest, in one other interview, Mr. Duong mentioned that he usually mentioned to different Chinese language-Australian neighborhood leaders, “If they talk about spies, they should put me, Di Sanh Duong, in the category of spies.”

He spoke about his ties to China, together with his abroad adviser positions for 4 provincial Chinese language our bodies. So, he mentioned, “Does that make me China’s lackey?”

Unbeknown to Mr. Duong, he was already being investigated by the Australian authorities. They regarded some teams he was concerned in as organizations linked to China’s overseas affect operation. They wished to know why he usually traveled to China, made feedback that echoed Beijing’s insurance policies, and boasted about his friendship with a Chinese language intelligence officer. His interactions with Chinese language officers in Australia, together with when he despatched pictures of Falun Gong protesters to a consulate official, additionally got here beneath scrutiny.

In 2020, Mr. Duong was charged beneath the overseas interference regulation, which criminalized any misleading or covert conduct that’s supposed to affect Australian politics or coverage on behalf of a overseas authorities.

Mr. Duong’s neighborhood group had raised about $25,000 and was donating the cash to a Melbourne hospital to assist deal with Covid sufferers, at a time when anti-Chinese language sentiment was excessive in Australia. Mr. Duong had invited Alan Tudge, the immigration minister on the time, to be current when he handed over the cash.

Throughout the trial, which ran for 3 weeks final yr and was partly closed to the general public, prosecutors didn’t dispute that Mr. Duong had good intentions. However they argued — in gentle of his connections to Beijing and what prosecutors mentioned was his affiliation with China’s overseas affect operation — his final motive was nefarious. He was, a prosecutor mentioned, fascinated by how he might, sooner or later, affect Mr. Tudge to the advantage of “us Chinese.”

Mr. Tudge’s places of work mentioned {that a} background examine it ordered on Mr. Duong didn’t increase any alarms. However prosecutors argued that Mr. Duong hid his connections to Chinese language officers, though his enterprise card listed his provincial adviser positions.

Earlier than donating the cash, prosecutors mentioned that Mr. Duong had been in common contact with Chinese language officers. He had been attempting to enlist their assist to supply surgical masks from China, which he wished to present to the hospital. These interactions, in keeping with the lead prosecutor, Patrick Doyle, meant Mr. Duong had “a secret connection to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Not that these connections did any good: Mr. Duong by no means managed to get the masks from China.

As proof of Mr. Duong’s intentions towards Mr. Tudge, prosecutors introduced a years-old letter he wrote to a state-level Liberal Occasion official containing coverage recommendations that the decide later described as “vague, impracticable and unlikely to be taken seriously.” His fundamental thrust was that Australia ought to contemplate China as its main strategic companion, not america. Prosecutors argued it was the type of strategy he would possibly attempt once more.

This was all proof, the Australian authorities argued, that Mr. Duong had been co-opted by a piece of China’s influence-peddling operation often called the United Entrance Work Division.

“The way the United Front system works — and Mr. Duong’s role reflects this — is that it’s a lot more subtle,” Mr. Doyle mentioned. “It’s a lot more nuanced than you’re either a spy or not a spy.”

The case, he mentioned, was not within the realm of “spy novels, of James Bond films.”

The United Entrance system, Mr. Doyle instructed the jury, targets all ethnically Chinese language individuals residing abroad, not solely to sway their beliefs, but additionally to show them into brokers to affect others. For the latter, particular forms of abroad Chinese language are prioritized: those that “have a strong allegiance to China as the motherland,” and people with affect and energy.

Mr. Duong had each, particularly the previous, Mr. Doyle mentioned. The United Entrance system ensured that Mr. Duong had “become exactly the sort of patriot” able to and prepared to behave in methods, even with out specific directions, that helped the Chinese language authorities obtain its targets, he mentioned.

Mr. Duong’s lawyer, Peter Chadwick, argued that his consumer merely appreciated to magnify his connections to wealthy and highly effective individuals. Relationships with Chinese language authorities officers had been a necessity for somebody who did enterprise in China, like Mr. Duong, he argued. This “doesn’t mean that a person or an organization are forever co-opted to do what the Chinese government says,” he mentioned.

Mr. Duong appeared to attract extra scrutiny due to his Chinese language heritage, Mr. Chadwick mentioned. He added, “I can’t help but wonder whether we’d be here if Mr. Duong was a person of Italian descent who repeatedly traveled back to the Italian motherland.”

Mr. Chadwick was reprimanded by the decide for “hinting that there’s a racial motivation.”

Throughout the trial, Mr. Duong mentioned within the interview that he believed that it was in each China and Australia’s greatest pursuits to be strategic companions. For somebody who noticed himself and his neighborhood as a bridge between the 2 nations, there was no such factor as being “too close” to China.

“We hope China and Australia’s relationship is always good,” he mentioned.