By Kirsty Needham and Liz Lee
SYDNEY/BEIJING (Reuters) -Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday that Australia would not tolerate surveillance of its community by foreign governments, after a Chinese woman was charged with foreign interference and denied bail by a court.
The woman, who has not entered a plea, appeared in court in Australia’s capital Canberra on Monday after police charged her with “reckless foreign interference” for allegedly monitoring a Buddhist group in the city on behalf of a Chinese security agency.
The court heard the woman’s husband was a vice captain in a public security ministry in a Chinese province, and she had visited the Chinese consulate in Canberra in the days after her property was raided by police, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
In a series of television interviews on Tuesday, Wong said she couldn’t comment on an individual case, but added Australia was taking a stand against foreign interference.
“We do not tolerate harassment, intimidation, surveillance of Australians and we have a strong framework to deter foreign interference in our democracy,” she said in an ABC radio interview.
It is the third time charges have been brought under foreign interference laws introduced in Australia in 2018, and the first time a Chinese national has been charged under the legislation.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement the ministry “was not aware of the specifics of the case” but would closely follow developments and “safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its citizens.”
“China has never interfered in the internal affairs of other countries, and firmly opposes any attempts to disrupt normal people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between China and relevant countries under the pretext of ‘foreign interference’,” the spokesperson added.
A court suppression order has prevented media reporting the woman’s name.
The woman, who is also a permanent resident of Australia, faces a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment if she is convicted, according to Australian Federal Police.
Police allege the woman was tasked by a Public Security Bureau of China to covertly gather information about the Canberra branch of Guan Yin Citta, a Buddhist group.
China’s embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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