The Chinese foreign ministry has accused Australian consular officials of having “wantonly obstructed and disrupted the normal law enforcement activities” of Chinese authorities when they sheltered journalists Bill Birtles and Mike Smith last week.
Birtles and Smith, China correspondents for the ABC and the Australian Financial Review respectively, were flown out of China this week after a tense five-day diplomatic standoff. Chinese state security services sought to interview the two men in relation to the case of Cheng Lei, another Australian journalist who was detained in August and is believed to be in one of China’s secretive black jails.
Birtles sheltered in Australia’s embassy in Beijing and Smith in the Shanghai consulate, while high level negotiations were conducted to have an exit ban on the journalists lifted in return for agreeing to interviews.
But on Thursday the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, said allowing the men to stay in the diplomatic compounds “went above and beyond the scope of consular protection”.
“In essence, they amount to disruption in the Chinese side’s lawful investigation and interference in China’s domestic affairs and judicial sovereignty,” Zhao told a press conference.
“The Australian embassy in China wantonly obstructed and disrupted the normal law enforcement activities of the Chinese side by sheltering and helping the relevant journalists evading China’s investigations. Such an action is incompatible with the status and functions of the mission.”
The Australians have both said their interviews did not seem to be about the Cheng case and felt more like targeted harassment of journalists. The day after they returned home, Chinese state media reported that Australian security and intelligence services raided the homes of Chinese media workers in Australia and questioned them, adding to speculation that the actions against Birtles and Smith were retaliatory.
“The Australian side describes its ‘questioning’ of Chinese journalists as normal procedure, but accuses the Chinese side of engaging in ‘hostage diplomacy’,” Zhao said.
“It fully revealed some Australians’ unfounded sense of superiority, hypocrisy and double standards.”
Australia’s trade minister, Simon Birmingham, told ABC radio on Friday the Australian consular officials in China acted appropriately.
“The Australian embassy provided the support that Australians would expect to be provided to Australians in trouble, particularly to journalists working in a foreign country,” Birmingham said.
“They ensured the safety of the two Australians involved. They resolved the matter diplomatically through discussions with Chinese authorities, which did provide those Chinese authorities with the opportunity to conduct those interviews but also guaranteed the safety and the ability to depart China for those two individuals.”
Australian government ministers and officials have given few details on the raid of Chinese media workers in late June, believed to be part of intelligence agencies’ investigation into foreign interference, which also triggered a raid on the Sydney home of the New South Wales upper house Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane in June.
The visas of two scholars were also cancelled, including that of Prof Chen Hong, who has been director of the Australian studies centre at East China Normal University in Shanghai since 2001 and is a frequent visitor to Australia.
Chen told the Guardian he “absolutely refused” to accept intelligence agency Asio’s assessment that he posed a direct or indirect risk to security.
Birmingham said the security agencies had acted according to the law.
“We appropriately respond in relation to any foreign interference concerns that are raised in Australia,” he said. “We do it purely in relation to the evidence.”
