When the well-known Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing applied for political asylum during his stay in Australia, his assistant Zhou Jing applied as well, but her application has now been rejected by the Australian government.

Zhao Jing, currently still in Australia, told overseas media that she is extremely disappointed by the decision made by the Australian government. AFP reports that the Australian government rejected Zhao’s application a week after she and Yuan Hongbing officially applied for political asylum, even though the process normally takes over a month.

Liu Qing, president of an association for Chinese human rights whose headquarters are in the United States, said that this result is not surprising because the Chinese government put tremendous pressure on the Australian government.

Liu believed that the Australian government should carefully reconsider Zhao Jing’s application and not bow to pressure from the Chinese government and diplomatic pressure.

Professor Yuan Hongbing’s assistant, Ms Zhao Jing, who was denied political asylum in Australia. (Epoch Times photo)

On the afternoon of August 7, some overseas Chinese in Sydney held a welcoming party for Yuan Hongbing and others to welcome them to Australia. Zhao Jing also attended this party. She told local media that she had helped Yuan Hongbing type his four drafted manuscripts on a computer and helped bring them to Australia, and that she had also helped with his application for political asylum. Zhao said that by the time she and Yuan had both applied for political asylum in Australia, Zhao’s sister had already been detained by the Chinese government for two days. Zhao’s sister had been with Zhao to visit Australia, but upon her return to China she had been detained.

Yuan Hongbing said that one of his students had once been imprisoned for several months because he had helped Yuan hide one of his drafted manuscripts. Yuan predicted that if Zhao Jing were to return to China, she would probably be sentenced to ten years in prison.

Ye Ning, a lawyer who is currently working in the United States, explained that although the administrative department has rejected Zhao’s application, she can still appeal and request political asylum through legal channels.

Ye said that the administrative department that processes the application is easily affected by diplomatic, political and economical factors. But once legal proceedings have begun, the independence of the judicial system is an advantage to the applicant. Therefore, he believed that Zhao still had a good chance of success.