Same, same but different

Chen sought asylum from US;

The Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, conceded yesterday that Australia had rejected Mr Chen's bid for political asylum.

China's ambassador, Fu Ying, promised that Mr Chen would not face jail or execution if he returned home, even though he had tarnished China's image.

Mr Chen - a senior diplomat at China's Sydney consulate who was responsible for monitoring dissidents among the Chinese diaspora in NSW - attempted to defect on May 26, weeks before he was due to be posted back to Beijing.

He says he was a democracy advocate and had helped Falun Gong members, among others, behaviour his successor in the Sydney consulate was likely to uncover.

Rejected by the spreaders of freedom and democracy.

Meanwhile, the 2004 Amnesty report on China;

However, another system, “re-education through labour”, continued to allow for the detention of hundreds of thousands of people for up to three years without charge or trial. In September the Ministry of Public Security announced new regulations aimed at preventing the police from using torture in administrative cases, but it remained unclear how well they would be enforced in practice.

Apparently (who'd believe it?), the Chinese Government is also exploiting the War on Terror as an excuse to crack down on peaceful dissidents. Easy to see why the Australian and U.S. Governments won't grant political asylum to Chen, they use similar justifications

Brutal? Believe it.