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SHANGHAI: Australian intelligence agency staff searched the homes of Chinese journalists in June, interrogated them for several hours and took away their computers and mobile phones, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday night.
The Xinhua report comes shortly after two Australian journalists returned home with the help of consular officials after the couple were visited at their homes in Beijing and Shanghai and later questioned by China’s Ministry of State Security.
The Xinhua report said that the Australian searches, which it described as “raids”, were carried out in an unspecified number of homes of Chinese journalists by intelligence personnel on June 26.
Reporters were told to “keep quiet” about the incident, Xinhua said, without citing sources.
When asked if it could confirm the raids, the Chinese embassy in Canberra said in an emailed statement to Reuters that it had “provided consular support to Chinese journalists in Australia and made representations to the relevant Australian authorities to safeguard rights and legitimate interests of Chinese citizens. “
The Xinhua report also criticized a search at the home and office of New South Wales state politician Shaoquett Moselmane on the same day, claiming that he was targeted for his praise of China’s achievements in fighting the epidemic. and for criticizing Australia’s policy towards China.
“In a country with the so-called ‘rule of law’, there is no justification or conclusive evidence to search homes and confiscate personal belongings, which is completely committing ‘white terror’ against the staff of Chinese institutions and friends of China,” Xinhua said.
Australia has a strained diplomatic relationship with China, which worsened this year after Beijing promised trade retaliation and said it was angered by Australia’s call for an international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
When asked about the Xinhua report, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) said in an emailed statement that “as it is a long-standing practice, ASIO does not comment on intelligence matters.”
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), which conducted a search of Moselmane’s offices and his employee, John Zhang, on June 26, said that “there is an ongoing investigation related to Moselmane’s search warrant.”
When asked about the reported raids on journalists’ homes, AFP said it had no further comment and noted that it is not an intelligence agency.
Zhang is under scrutiny as part of an AFP foreign interference investigation into whether he was working to advance the “interests of the Chinese state”, according to documents filed in Australia’s High Court.
The reported June 26 searches of Chinese journalists in Australia were also detailed in The Global Times, an English-language tabloid run by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper, which attributed the information to a source.
The Chinese embassy distributed the Global Times article to other journalists in Australia and said it was “concerning”.
The two Australian journalists who came home from China on Tuesday sought refuge in the embassy in Beijing and the consulate in Shanghai after police entered their homes a week ago and told them they were prohibited from leaving China.
His departure leaves the Australian media without a correspondent in China for the first time since the 1970s.
