Australia withdrew one defendant ' s allegation of foreign intervention: court materials disclosed police-named Chinese public security mission chain

The Australian Capital Territory District Court dismissed the charge of “reckless foreign intervention” against a 26-year-old Chinese man on 30 September, but the case of gathering information about religious groups in Australia around the Chinese public security system was not closed. Public court materials indicate that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) case is based on electronic mobile phone forensics, micro-credit communications and mission directives; According to the police, a Chinese permanent resident of Australia who had been arrested earlier had been on a mission by a Chinese public security organ since 2022 and had transferred some of the tasks to two other persons. Siru Zheng and the 38-year-old woman whose identity was protected by a confidential order are still facing foreign interference charges and the case is expected to be re-examined in December.

The names of the men who were withdrawn from the charges were always protected by court orders of confidentiality. ABC reported that no specific reasons for the prosecution's withdrawal of the charge were disclosed in court on 30 September. Meanwhile, the 38-year-old woman who was arrested earlier faced a charge of “intentional foreign intervention”, in addition to the original “negligence foreign intervention”. The case was developed by the Operation Automán-Shield investigation, which was initiated following the information provided by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO).

From ASIO intelligence to mobile phone forensics: Austral-published material has formed a chain of public security missions

In August 2025, AFP investigators stated in the ACT District Court that the first woman arrested was on “personal duty” of a Chinese public security organ through the use of encrypted communications; The police found the relevant application on the mobile phone when they searched his house and objected to bail on the grounds that electronic evidence could be accessed or changed remotely. The police also stated that she had worked for the Chinese public security system since 2022 and had been tasked, inter alia, with the covert collection of information on the Australian branch of Guan Yin Cita (Face of the Sound).

The subsequent public police documents further set out the tasks: photographing the group ' s locations of activity throughout Australia, gathering information on the person in charge and the relevant persons ' addresses, investigating the response of the founder, Hong, after his death in 2021, and seeking access to the organization and to insiders. In February 2026, the court documents revealed that the police case relied heavily on a typographical communication between the three defendants and with a person who was identified as a staff member of the Chinese public security organs. The young woman who was arrested sent the investigation targets from China to two others; When asked about the subjects to be investigated, she asked for an immediate inquiry into the current situation of the group and the official website.

The evidence that Australia is currently making public is therefore not just “persons gathering public information”, but rather an allegation chain of ASIO intelligence, cell phone forensics, encrypted communications, mission-specific content and personal relationships. The public court materials have not yet disclosed the names of the security personnel of the other side, the specific public security organs and functions, which are also the most important upstream node of responsibility in the next phase of the case.

husband serving in the public security system, police alleging direct contact between the accused and the Chinese security system

The court proceedings of August 2025 also revealed that the husband of the first arrested woman held a post in the public security system in one of China's provinces, which had been translated into “view captain” by an English report. Public reports do not disclose the husband ' s name, the province, or prove that the husband is the mission contact in the microletter; However, this information, in conjunction with what the police call a public security mission, shows that there is direct personal contact between the subject of the investigation and the Chinese public security system, rather than a general Chinese context.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt publicly stated that the police had alleged that the activities were in support of the intelligence objectives of the Chinese public security organs. This was also the first case in Australia following the entry into force of the Foreign Intervention Act 2018, where the police described a foreign agency as having conducted information-gathering directly against members of the Australian community.

Why are you staring at the sound-seeing mind? The anti-correstrial system in China has already made it a target of governance.

The Chinese background in this case cannot be taken by a single sentence, “the group is banned in China”. The Chinese Anti-Traditional Network has long held the topic “The Legal Gate of the Spirit” and still called it “Illegal Organization” in 2024; Anti-correstrial material, which was reproduced by the Network over 2017, described the organization as “infiltration” from Australia to China, with particular reference to the QQQ, the Micro-Type, the Inland Co-System and its links to Australian headquarters. The characterization is a public position of the Chinese political system and the anti-sect propaganda system.

This domestic governance objective is directly in line with the overseas mission content disclosed by Australia: the police claim that the tasks are also concentrated on the group ' s organizational network, head of the group, address, website and membership activities. In other words, the Australian case file does not present a collection of general commercial or defence intelligence, but rather the fact that religious groups included in the anti-cagan rule in China are still subject to information tasks in the Chinese public security system after they have been legally operating abroad.

The Chinese Anti-Treatment Network is not a popular blog that is not related to public security or the political and legal system. Its public information indicates that the platform has been permanently integrated into the new media system of the national political and public security system; The Anti-Tradition Campaign, co-organized by the China Anti-Traditional Society, the Chinese University of Political Science and Law, the Beijing Anti-Traditional Association and the Changping District Commission of Beijing, was attended by members of the Central Commission on Political Law and the like. The combination of this domestic governance chain with the micro-trust mission material obtained by the Australian Police allows for the same subject to be seen in the allegations of domestic governance and overseas public security missions.

The position of the public security organs in the political system of China makes it necessary to keep the responsibility beyond those who carry out it abroad

The Chinese public security system has its own institutional document that makes it very clear that it has a political affiliation. The Ministry of Public Security has issued public documents requiring the “PSP” party to insist on the “absolute leadership” of the Communist Party of China in its work on public security; The articles of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Public Security also include the “long-term status of the PD-P” as an important political task in the development of public security under the rule of law, and incorporate the security of the regime, institutional security and ideological security into the responsibilities of the public security organs for the maintenance of political security.

It is therefore not the private relationship between the three overseas Chinese that really needs to be pursued, but rather the upstream chain of public security responsibility, as the Australian programme volume refers to: which public security organ, which public security officer has the task, how the task is to be developed within the public security system, which department to collect the results ultimately to which authority, and whether information action against religious groups abroad is part of the broader system of political law and anti-cagan work.

One person withdrew the case and the remaining two women ' s evidence will continue to be tested in court

During the bail proceedings in February, the ACT Magistrate Glenn Theakston stated that there was limited evidence that Siru Zheng and 26-year-old men had been engaged in covert activities, and that some of the collections were from open sources such as Google, the open press, etc. The withdrawal of men on 30 September placed what was actually being done by each accused throughout the chain of tasks at the centre of the next phase of the case.

The charges against one man were dropped, however, without the case against the earlier arrested woman and Siru Zheng being dropped, nor was the tweets, cell phone depositions and mission records that had entered the court materials removed. Section 92.3 of the Australian Criminal Code requires the prosecution to prove the foreign subject relationship, covert or fraudulent conduct and the corresponding subjective element; This means that the next procedure will further test the specific connection between the two women and the Chinese public security mission and whether their actions meet the threshold for foreign intervention.

In July this year, then Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Sho thousands, publicly denied China's involvement in Australia's activities and criticized the Australian security agencies and the media for their “China threat”. This position in Beijing is in a positive conflict with the public security mission materials submitted to the court by the AFP. The next most valuable new fact for this case is not to repeat the political statements of both sides, but to pursue the chain of public security tasks that has been revealed and which continues to be pursued by specific institutions and duty-bearers in China.