A defector from Auckland’s Consulate for the People’s Republic of China who told New Zealand police he feared his Catholicism was putting his life in danger has been granted asylum.
Dong Luobin, now 39, fled the consulate in May 2018. Six months later New Zealand authorities granted him refugee status after concluding he faced persecution over his religious and political views were he to return to China.
Rhys Ball, a senior lecturer in security studies at Massey University, said the case was the first defection of a foreign government official or employee on New Zealand soil he was aware of since the 1947-1991 Cold War.
“Defections are a particularly rare occurrence,” Ball said.
The Weekend Herald first talked to Dong more than four years ago, just months after his dramatic escape from the consulate compound in Greenlane, but publication was then withheld over safety concerns. This week Dong said he had decided to speak out publicly for the first time to help New Zealanders understand the importance of their democratic freedoms.
“My children will be New Zealanders too, so it means even more to me to protect this country,” he said.
Questions about Dong’s case and claims sent by the Weekend Herald to China’s embassy this week were unanswered by publication time.
Dong had grown up in Hebei Province and had worked for China’s Foreign Affairs office since 2016. His arrival in New Zealand to work as a driver at the Auckland Consulate in March 2018 was his first overseas posting.
He described his working life in Auckland - in a multi-building compound surrounded by a high barbed-wire-topped wall - as subject to extraordinary controls. Staff, most of whom were unable to speak English, lived on site, had to surrender their passports to the consulate, and were only able to leave the compound in groups of three or more.
“We’re not allowed to go out. I can’t come and go as I please. There must be three people going together,” he said.
Dong said when he started work at the consulate the wall around the accommodation block near the main administration building was still under construction, enabling him to sneak out during lunchtimes or evenings to visit a nearby church.
Dong is a third-generation Catholic, but said practising his faith in the country of his birth to attend “underground church” - one that still held to the Vatican, unlike its Beijing-sponsored breakaway the Catholic Patriotic Association - was subject to surveillance and repression.
“Our pastor is filmed as soon as he steps out his door. There are spies inside our church,” Dong said.
His furtive journeys beyond the consulate walls also gave him the opportunity to buy a cellphone and access internet not subject to the censorship of China’s Great Firewall, where he said he was able to learn - through Facebook - for the first time of wider religious repression in China, including human rights lawyers and clergy being “secretly disappeared”.
“At night, going to sleep, I shed tears,” he said after learning of these revelations.
But his absences to secretly attend church were noticed and on the morning of May 7 he was questioned by consulate staff about his whereabouts the previous day and why he did not answer his phone.
“When I came back I told them I went for a run. That morning it was raining: They didn’t believe me. They had ugly looks on their faces,” Dong said.
Dong began to fear the crucifix he wore around his neck may also have been noticed and his religious beliefs would soon be discovered.
By coincidence that very morning he had also been given possession of his passport to take to Automobile Association (AA) to verify his identity for his New Zealand driver’s licence: It presented an opportunity for escape.
“At that time there was a voice in my heart – I don’t know who was speaking to me – telling me ‘quickly get away, quickly leave,’ constantly urging me to get away, a voice in my heart telling me to leave. Then that midday I didn’t eat lunch, I just went and packed a few clothes, and just left.”
He first tried seeking asylum in the church he had surreptitiously visited, but the pastor he sought was not present and staff called police. He was taken to an Auckland police station where he was interviewed with the assistance of a Mandarin-speaking officer.
“I said to the translating officer, ‘If you send me back to the consulate I will die’. Then the police perhaps understood my situation. The officer said, ‘Don’t worry, we will protect you.’”
The following day Dong made contact with a lawyer who immediately filed an application for asylum.
He told the Weekend Herald that consulate staff “looked down” on New Zealand and recalled one saying: “New Zealand is a small country. As long as we give them money, there are many things they can help us do.”
He said the consulate acted as a key nexus in organising and directing New Zealand-based Chinese non-government organisations to ensure they aligned with Beijing.
“China uses a method. It uses soft power all over the world. After it has slowly corrupted, once you realise, it’s too late,” Dong said.
According to statistics published by Immigration New Zealand, China has over the past decade become the largest source by nationality of accepted asylum claims, with Dong one of 225 since 2016. Many were granted on genuine belief of religious persecution. (These figures exclude refugees accepted under international refugee quota programmes.)
National Party MP Simon O’Connor, a co-chair of the New Zealand branch of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said he had been offering support - largely moral - to Dong for a number of years.
“Those early days were fascinating, not only for what he had to share, but the level of security he felt needed to ensure his safety. Ensuring he was okay was a paramount concern for me and others,” he said.
“Most New Zealanders will be aware of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] repression of Uighur Muslims or suppression of freedoms in Hong Kong, but perhaps unaware that Christians are also aggressively targeted, notably those who do not acquiesce to the state-sponsored churches. It is a sad reality that those in China wishing to express their Christian faith are at risk as the situation with Luobin illustrates.”
O’Connor, a staunch Catholic, said Dong’s story should be a warning for New Zealand: “His story, and why he defected, illustrates the paranoia of authoritarian regimes.”
The Weekend Herald understands that over the past few years both police and the NZSIS have been involved in discussions over Dong’s physical safety.
Dong said since his defection his family in China has been pressured and intimidated by government officials who threatened their ability to travel internationally and even domestically.
“They were told: ‘He can’t come back. And you can’t leave either ... you won’t even be able to buy a train ticket,’” he said of the threats.
Canterbury University professor Anne-Marie Brady, who was also aware of Dong’s case, said his story “contradicts the narrative that the New Zealand Government is soft on China.
“We could have refused to take him in but he was picked up by ordinary New Zealand police who, thankfully, understood the danger he was in and he was granted refugee status within months,” Brady said.
Massey University’s Ball, who worked for a time as an NZSIS officer, said Dong’s relatively low-level job at the consulate meant he was unlikely to be treated by authorities - here or in Beijing - as a high-value intelligence source.
“This makes him a second- or third-tier source, although someone with genuine fears for his safety,” Ball said,
He added that Dong would nonetheless be of interest to western intelligence agencies, especially the NZSIS.
“I’m sure they would be keen to have a chat to him,” Ball said.
A spokesperson for the NZSIS said it had a “long-standing approach of not commenting on individuals”, but added:
“As a general comment, we can say that NZSIS has a mandate to protect New Zealand from foreign interference. We are aware that some communities in New Zealand are targeted in an effort to prevent the development of views deemed subversive by foreign states.”