November 8, 2022
Stephen Dziedzic
ABC News
Tuesday 8 November 2022
Australian Federal Police has told a Senate estimates hearing that it does not believe that Chinese police are currently maintaining a secretive "contact point" in Sydney.
An international human rights group released a report earlier this year, which said that Chinese authorities had set up outreach operations in dozens of cities around the globe.
China says the "contact points" are there to provide services to Chinese citizens abroad, but human rights advocates fear they are being used to target dissidents abroad or to compel people to return to China, where they could face potentially politicised trials.
Last month, the ABC also revealed that, in 2018, an official "contact point" had been established in Sydney by the Department of Public Security in the Chinese city of Wenzhou.
The Sydney operation was trumpeted in an official ceremony in 2019 in Wenzhou, but did not draw any attention in Australia at the time.
A spokesperson for the Australia Wenzhou Chamber of Industry and Commerce told the ABC the police contact point had closed, but when the ABC contacted Wenzhou police in China they said it should still be open.
Liberal Senator James Paterson grilled AFP officers about the report during a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra.
Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told the committee that he was "aware" of the ABC's report but that he did not have any concerns about the contact point.
"Is that because this was a declared presence a cooperative arrangement with the AFP, or because you don't have concerns because you don't believe it's active?" asked Senator Paterson.
"I don't believe it's active," the Deputy Commissioner responded.
However, he wouldn't say whether the contact point had been active in the past.
"In terms of the work we do in the countering foreign interference space, it doesn't stand still, it is ongoing and I'm not prepared in an opening hearing to detail those issues," he said.
Authorities in Canada, Germany and the Netherlands are investigating the claims of overseas police stations operating in their jurisdictions.
The ABC last week asked the AFP if it would launch an investigation, but it had no comment.
Senior AFP officers agreed that, if China operated a contact point without alerting them, it would be in breach of set agreements between the two forces.
"We have an MoU with MPS (Ministry of Public Security) and if either of us gets out of bounds, then that MoU is rescinded, and then we stop doing our cooperation," AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw told the hearing.
"Having met the MPS in India at Interpol [at a global meeting held in New Delhi]. We know the rules and so do they."
Senator Paterson also asked the AFP if it would extend the MoU when it was due to be reviewed in 2023, given the bilateral relationship had sharply deteriorated since it was struck in 2018.
Deputy Commissioner McCartney said the AFP would consult with other government departments before making any decision, but he acknowledged that Australia's assessments of China had changed.
"As you say, it's a different environment now," he said.
The Chinese embassy in Canberra previously told the ABC they were unaware of any "service centre" set up in Sydney.
"The main purpose of the service centres is to help overseas Chinese nationals in need [of] access [to] the platform to have their driving licences [renewed] and receive physical examinations," a spokesperson said.
"All those who are helping out are volunteers without payment."
"They are not Chinese police officers, nor [are they] personnel sent by Chinese police authorities. They have never, and will never, engage in criminal investigations or other law enforcement activities."
