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A former Chinese policeman has been granted a protection visa in Australia, his lawyer said on Monday.

Hao Fengjun, 32, had requested asylum after arriving in the country with information on the abuse and torture of dissidents in China.

Mr Hao has also spoken out in support of another defector, former diplomat Chen Yonglin, who claims China runs a network of 1,000 spies in Australia.

Chen Yonglin was granted an Australian protection visa last month.

Mr Hao's lawyer, Bernard Collaery, said his client received his visa last week, a day after testifying at a Senate inquiry about Mr Chen's asylum request.

Mr Collaery suggested Mr Hao had only received the visa because of the publicity surrounding the hearing.

"It took that kind of pressure... to get protection in our country," he told the Australian Associated Press.

Controversial claims

Mr Hao arrived in Australia in February on a tourist visa, bringing with him several secret files which he had downloaded from a police computer.

He claimed asylum, saying the papers related to China's crackdown on pro-democracy activists and members of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, which is banned in China.

During his time in China, Mr Hao worked for a security department where he said he also handled reports from informants based abroad, who were spying on alleged dissidents.

His comments backed up those of Mr Chen, who said that there were up to 1,000 Chinese spies in Australia.

Mr Chen made his controversial comments six weeks after abandoning his post at the Chinese consulate-general in Sydney.

China has accused Mr Chen of making up stories to avoid going home, since he had reached the end of his four-year stint in Australia.

I find the claim of '1'000 spies' to smell like BS, but there is no doubt some form of intelligence gathering going on. But not THAT many.

frigidmagi wrote:

I find the claim of '1'000 spies' to smell like BS, but there is no doubt some form of intelligence gathering going on. But not THAT many.

Any reason? Not to doubt you but for a nation of Australia's size and population, hiding 1000 spies wouldn't be that hard. Putting them in postions that matter would be a different story of course.

frigidmagi wrote:I rather hear from Stofsk man, it is his country so he would have a better idea.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I assume Canada is spying on the US.

frigidmagi wrote:I rather hear from Stofsk man, it is his country so he would have a better idea.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I assume Canada is spying on the US.

My thought was that China does spy on us, but I doubt the actual number is known. If it happens to be exactly one thousand spies, then I guess the guy would be vindicated. I think it would be less than that, because '1'000 spies' sounds too much like a round number.