Chen Yonglin: Wrong country, wrong century

Chen could have just gone back to China, left the foreign service and found employ in any one of the myriad businesses that would have given him a stake in the "to get rich is glorious" ethos of his fellow countrymen.

Why he chose to defect and take such a public stance against his past must give us pause. He can't simply be dismissed, nor should his rights be derided or indeed denied.

But Chen is belatedly learning that the Australian authorities are armed with their own laws and regulations. They have been quick to deny him political asylum and he has joined the notorious queue of refugees administered by Amanda Vanstone's near Byzantine bloatocracy.

This isn't the late '80s, when this nation displayed firmer humanitarian resolve. And Fu Ying is right when she avers that her country has made progress; well, at least in comparison with its horrific totalitarian past. As for Australia, we too have moved on. The thing is, we've gone into reverse.