MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – A Chinese citizen was charged on Monday under the recent foreign interference laws of Australia, in which he secretly collected information about an Australian Buddhist association, the police said.
The woman, an Australian permanent resident located in the capital Canberra, is only the third person who was adopted in 2018 because the laws were adopted and the first is accused of interfering with the general population, said the Australian Federal Police Assistant -Commissioner Stephen Useful.
She was charged in a Canberra court with secret information about a local branch of the Buddhist Association Guan Yin Citta on behalf of the Public Security Office of China.
The association is forbidden in China. The police have not detailed its alleged objectives.
“We claim that the activity was to support the intelligence objectives of the Chinese Public Security Office. This is the first time that the AFP has sued a person with foreign interference that reportedly relates to members of the Australian community,” said Nutor Repenters.
“Foreign interference is a serious crime that undermines democracy and social cohesion. It is a crime that is carried out by or on behalf of a foreign director that entails secret and misleading behavior or threats of serious damage or imminent requirements,” Nuke added.
The woman, who was arrested at her home on Saturday, cannot be called publicly because of a judicial order. She was taken into custody and is confronted with a maximum of 15 years in prison if they are convicted.
The Chinese embassy in Canberra did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Monday.
She is the first foreign subject to be charged under the radical laws that created a gap between Australia and China when they were first announced in 2017.
The businessman of Melbourne, born in Vietnam and local community leader Di Sanh Duong, was sentenced last year to two years and nine months in prison for an attempt to influence a former Federal Government Minister on behalf of China.
Sydney -businessman Alexander Csergo was also accused of foreign interference for alleged acceptance of payments for information from two suspected Chinese spies. He did not argue guilty of the indictment.
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, said that the most important domestic espionage agency of the nation had made a significant contribution to the latest arrest.
“Foreign interference of the kind that is mentioned is a terrible attack on Australian values, freedoms and sovereignty,” Burgess said in a statement.
The indictment comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanian bilateral relations with China restores those new lows under the previous Australian administration on issues such as foreign interference laws.
Albanian traveled to Beijing last month to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the fourth time, because the Australian leader was chosen for the first time in 2022.
