Tibetans raise rights abuses as PM meets Chinese leader
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The Advertiser
27 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Family plead for alleged China pilot trainer's freedom
The wife of an Australian father locked up for 1000 days on allegations he unlawfully helped China remains pleading with the government to intervene in his case. Daniel Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison for allegedly training Chinese military personnel in South Africa after leaving the US Marine Corps. The father-of-six is fighting his extradition to the United States in the Federal Court after former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus ticked it off in December. Charges and an indictment were first filed in a sealed court case in 2017 under the first Donald Trump administration, before Duggan was arrested and detained in 2022. His wife Saffrine Duggan used the 1000-day milestone to beg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to lobby for his release before he is sent to America. She called the charges "politically motivated" and said they do not stack up. "Surely that can't stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our government," she said. "We often hear our prime minister advocating for Australians locked up by a foreign government. "Why won't our own government advocate for us?" Ms Duggan has written to Ms Rowland asking her to examine the facts of the case "and learn what we already know". "Dan and my family should not be in this situation. "Australia should be a place of strength, of freedom, independence and justice," she said. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 after being accused of breaching US arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He had worked part-time as a flying instructor during the relevant period. In a letter from prison in May, Duggan said he believed his activities were not illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work. He claimed ASIO agents brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading him to believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy. ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court. The wife of an Australian father locked up for 1000 days on allegations he unlawfully helped China remains pleading with the government to intervene in his case. Daniel Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison for allegedly training Chinese military personnel in South Africa after leaving the US Marine Corps. The father-of-six is fighting his extradition to the United States in the Federal Court after former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus ticked it off in December. Charges and an indictment were first filed in a sealed court case in 2017 under the first Donald Trump administration, before Duggan was arrested and detained in 2022. His wife Saffrine Duggan used the 1000-day milestone to beg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to lobby for his release before he is sent to America. She called the charges "politically motivated" and said they do not stack up. "Surely that can't stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our government," she said. "We often hear our prime minister advocating for Australians locked up by a foreign government. "Why won't our own government advocate for us?" Ms Duggan has written to Ms Rowland asking her to examine the facts of the case "and learn what we already know". "Dan and my family should not be in this situation. "Australia should be a place of strength, of freedom, independence and justice," she said. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 after being accused of breaching US arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He had worked part-time as a flying instructor during the relevant period. In a letter from prison in May, Duggan said he believed his activities were not illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work. He claimed ASIO agents brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading him to believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy. ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court. The wife of an Australian father locked up for 1000 days on allegations he unlawfully helped China remains pleading with the government to intervene in his case. Daniel Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison for allegedly training Chinese military personnel in South Africa after leaving the US Marine Corps. The father-of-six is fighting his extradition to the United States in the Federal Court after former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus ticked it off in December. Charges and an indictment were first filed in a sealed court case in 2017 under the first Donald Trump administration, before Duggan was arrested and detained in 2022. His wife Saffrine Duggan used the 1000-day milestone to beg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to lobby for his release before he is sent to America. She called the charges "politically motivated" and said they do not stack up. "Surely that can't stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our government," she said. "We often hear our prime minister advocating for Australians locked up by a foreign government. "Why won't our own government advocate for us?" Ms Duggan has written to Ms Rowland asking her to examine the facts of the case "and learn what we already know". "Dan and my family should not be in this situation. "Australia should be a place of strength, of freedom, independence and justice," she said. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 after being accused of breaching US arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He had worked part-time as a flying instructor during the relevant period. In a letter from prison in May, Duggan said he believed his activities were not illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work. He claimed ASIO agents brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading him to believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy. ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court. The wife of an Australian father locked up for 1000 days on allegations he unlawfully helped China remains pleading with the government to intervene in his case. Daniel Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison for allegedly training Chinese military personnel in South Africa after leaving the US Marine Corps. The father-of-six is fighting his extradition to the United States in the Federal Court after former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus ticked it off in December. Charges and an indictment were first filed in a sealed court case in 2017 under the first Donald Trump administration, before Duggan was arrested and detained in 2022. His wife Saffrine Duggan used the 1000-day milestone to beg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to lobby for his release before he is sent to America. She called the charges "politically motivated" and said they do not stack up. "Surely that can't stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our government," she said. "We often hear our prime minister advocating for Australians locked up by a foreign government. "Why won't our own government advocate for us?" Ms Duggan has written to Ms Rowland asking her to examine the facts of the case "and learn what we already know". "Dan and my family should not be in this situation. "Australia should be a place of strength, of freedom, independence and justice," she said. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 after being accused of breaching US arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He had worked part-time as a flying instructor during the relevant period. In a letter from prison in May, Duggan said he believed his activities were not illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work. He claimed ASIO agents brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading him to believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy. ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese China visit: China's money makes us rich but, as I well know, we can't put a price on freedom
If not for the international pressure and the constant media reporting (of which I was proudly a part) about China's pollution and energy-intensive industries in the 2000s, would China have bitten the bullet on cleaner energy and green solutions? Loading Why do Chinese Communist Party officials reject any proposal for officials to declare their assets? Why do CCP officials and wealthy people send their families abroad? (Xi has distant relatives in Melbourne.) Why do the vociferous China bulls not give up their foreign passports and live in China as Chinese citizens? For all of the CCP's might, with all of China's powers and resources at its disposal, why is it so afraid of dissent that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, employs an army of 10,000 human censors deleting posts, suspending accounts day and night? China operates on a 'party first' principle. It is built into every message the citizen receives. Individuals can be easily sacrificed to ensure party longevity. To save the party's face or interests, China has no qualms arresting and torturing innocent individuals and manipulating the narrative. I know it personally. The CCP may well say on behalf of 1.4 billion people (whether they agree or not), 'Our way is best for us'. But is this the world we want to live in? Human rights used to be a fixed part of the agenda of state visits. Now, whenever there is some UN declaration on China's crimes against humanity for its treatment of Uyghurs, state TV shows footage of US gun crime, Canadian Indigenous children burial sites or Australia's Indigenous population suffering. Illustration by Badiucao Credit: China often laments it is 'getting older before it gets richer', but the sad fact is the rest of the world has helped it get richer and more powerful before it gets fairer. Global trade – and with it, an easier-to-coerce international community – has bolstered the CCP's military budget and helped to silence the Chinese population. Especially Australia, the most China-trade-dependent middle power. Dissidents and activists who used to be invited to other embassies in Beijing to brief visiting leaders on China's human rights would notice they were never invited to the Australian embassy. The average Sky watcher calls Albanese a 'sell-out' and says we should stop trade with China. ABC watchers, less consistently, laud the visit and say we're better off closer to China because the US is acting irresponsibly. Both sides have a point. Loading I am glad the prime minister raised the case of the Australian citizen and democracy activist Yang Hengjun, who remains imprisoned in China, but I'm disappointed that others are not doing more. The Australian Chinese community has not spoken out for Dr Yang. His family is still media-shy. When MPs visited Beijing last year and posted enthusiastic group photos on social media, I couldn't help but query whether they had asked to see Yang. Australia, nevertheless, may need to consider how much hardball it is willing to play with China. I suspect my own incarceration was an act of retaliation against then foreign minister Marise Payne, calling for an independent investigation into the cause of the COVID epidemic, including China's handling of the initial outbreak. What revenge might China take against Australians over the rescinding of its purchase of the Port of Darwin? My friend Badiucao drew a cartoon that showed the PM in a warm bath that was really a Chinese hotpot on the boil. Albanese is our leader, but it is all of us who are being cooked, oblivious as the water becomes incrementally hotter. I'd like to ask the prime minister this: Now that relations are better, is it easier or harder to broach the hard subjects? What does disagreement (where we must disagree) look like? I have said I don't want to be the symbol of disengagement, but I am proud to be the reminder of how China really is, not how it portrays itself by hiding everything from Xinjiang's internment camps – where many Australian Uyghurs' family members are still missing – to its brutal arrests of dissidents. Blocking me from cameras and making up lies about me on the Chinese internet are the least of it. At the Perth launch of my book this week, I heard from Chinese Australians who had been organising vigils for the Tiananmen Square massacre. They reported they were constantly harassed by 'muscle' hired by the Chinese consulate. I learnt from West Australian Greens MLC Sophie McNeill that WA Labor is the only party branch in Australia that still meets with the CCP-controlled United Front. It is incumbent, after all, not only on Anthony Albanese to be clear-eyed and cool-headed when it comes to China. It is the responsibility of all of us. Let's not stoop to political point-scoring, finger-pointing or mindless judgment. Let's not scapegoat our leader when we all benefit from China's money. China loves nothing more than to see us distracted and divided from endless bickering. Cheng Lei is a China-born Australian journalist. She is the author of Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom . Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter.
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Family plead for alleged China pilot trainer's freedom
The wife of an Australian father locked up for 1000 days on allegations he unlawfully helped China remains pleading with the government to intervene in his case. Daniel Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison for allegedly training Chinese military personnel in South Africa after leaving the US Marine Corps. The father-of-six is fighting his extradition to the United States in the Federal Court after former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus ticked it off in December. Charges and an indictment were first filed in a sealed court case in 2017 under the first Donald Trump administration, before Duggan was arrested and detained in 2022. His wife Saffrine Duggan used the 1000-day milestone to beg Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to lobby for his release before he is sent to America. She called the charges "politically motivated" and said they do not stack up. "Surely that can't stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our government," she said. "We often hear our prime minister advocating for Australians locked up by a foreign government. "Why won't our own government advocate for us?" Ms Duggan has written to Ms Rowland asking her to examine the facts of the case "and learn what we already know". "Dan and my family should not be in this situation. "Australia should be a place of strength, of freedom, independence and justice," she said. Duggan was arrested in Australia in October 2022 after being accused of breaching US arms-trafficking laws by providing military training to Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. He had worked part-time as a flying instructor during the relevant period. In a letter from prison in May, Duggan said he believed his activities were not illegal and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the US Naval Central Intelligence Service knew of his work. He claimed ASIO agents brought up being able to meet Chinese generals and the topic of intelligence in a 2012 interview, leading him to believe they were trying to recruit him as a spy. ASIO said it was unable to comment because the matter was before the court.
