Father Chen Tianquan of the Brisbane Chinese Catholic Church said in an interview with The Epoch Times that, because of the CCP’s inhumane religious persecution of his sister, two brothers, and at least ten other priests and nuns living in Shanghai, he believes Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun when they claim that they fled China because they could no longer bear the CCP’s disregard for human rights and religious freedom.

Chen Tianquan’s sister, Chen Yuejuan, and his two brothers, Chen Tianbao and Chen Tianxiang, traveled from Papua New Guinea to Shanghai to receive a Catholic education when they were about ten years old. They did not know that this would be the start of a life of suffering under the persecution of the CCP. Because of their devoted beliefs, Father Chen and his sister and brothers became priests and nuns, serving God for life.

When the Communists took power in China, Chen Tianquan’s three siblings as well as the other priests and nuns were charged with being part of an “anti-revolutionary group” because of their religious beliefs. All of them were sentenced to labor camps, with terms ranging from ten to forty years. Father Chen Tianbao died in Shanghai during the Great Cultural Revolution. Father Chen Tianxiang spent forty years in a labor camp.

Because Chen Tianquan’s three siblings arrived in Shanghai before he was born and were persecuted by the CCP, his family has lived in misery since the youngsters left home.

When Chen Tianquan went to Shanghai to meet his brother and sister for the first time in 1991, his sister was already 85 years old and his surviving brother, Chen Tianxiang, was 77. What Chen Tianquan regrets the most is that he didn’t have the chance to meet his oldest brother Chen Tianbao.

Chen Tianquan hopes to use his personal story to support Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun’s appeal to the Australian government to grant them Permanent Resident status because an Asylum visa would not guarantee that Chen and Hao could live in Australia permanently. Chen Tianquan also said that the Australian government does not need to worry that the CCP will not do business with Australia for granting these political asylums because the CCP must buy resources from Australia no matter what. Chen believes that there will be more officials escaping from China because the Australian government will at least grant them asylum.