Documents reveal messages between Chinese official and accused spy trio

Court documents reveal messages between Chinese official and trio accused of foreign interferenceEBy Elizabeth ByrneTopic:National Security8m ago8 minutes agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 7:50pmPolice allege a man and two women gathered information on a local Buddhist group. (Supplied: AFP)In short:New court documents show the alleged WeChat messages of three Chinese Australians accused of foreign interference.Two women and a man are on bail, accused of spying on a local Buddhist group, which is banned in China.What's next?It is expected that the trio will plead not guilty, with their cases to return to court later this year.abc.net.au/news/court-releases-accused-chinese-spy-correspondence/106361016Link copiedShareShare articleGoogle and Facebook have been revealed as primary sources of information for three Chinese Australians accused of spying for China on the Buddhist organisation Guan Yin Citta.The Buddhist group is banned in China.A 25-year-old man, whose name has been suppressed, and 31-year-old Suri Zheng were granted bail last week in the ACT Magistrates Court.The pair is charged with reckless foreign interference and is linked to a 37-year-old woman arrested last year on the same charge.News of the alleged spy operation broke last year when police searched the first woman's home, revealing a raft of luxury goods, including handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars.But details of anyone else accused of involvement have only now emerged after the 25-year-old-man and Ms Zheng were arrested in Canberra last week.'Get to investigating immediately'Court documents released overnight show the police case is largely reliant on WeChat communications between the three accused and an official working for China's Public Security Bureau.Police allege the older woman first contacted the other two from China in May, 2022, outlining a list of tasks to gather information on the Buddhist group based in Australia.Police said the man asked what topics should be investigated, with the woman replying: "All of them". "Man … I'll give it a try," he responded. "Get to investigating immediately. The priority is to investigate the current status of the Guan Yin Citta and their official site," she said. One topic the group was asked to investigate was the response to the 2021 death of Guan Yin Citta's leader, Chinese-born Australian Richard Jin Hong Lu. The Buddhist leader's group also had a media company, Oriental TV and Radio.The WeChat messages showed Ms Zheng was tasked with finding out about it. Chinese woman Siru Zheng, 31, is accused of foreign interference. (ABC News)She allegedly resorted to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) documents to determine who was behind the company.The messages showed the contact from China had urged the group to come up with street addresses for people linked to the Buddhist group. In one message, allegedly from Ms Zheng, she said the radio station was likely just a name:"…the actual 'radio station' likely refers to YouTube. Twitter. Fb. this sort of thing … Instagram accounts too ..."Woman told to join groupThe court materials showed police alleged the group gathered information from many open sources, including news items from SBS Chinese programs.When the 37-year-old returned to Australia, she allegedly told her Chinese contact the Buddhist group had set up in Canberra.In the messages released by the court, the contact in China urged the woman to join them and climb the hierarchy."You can slip in, climb as high as you can [chuckle emoji]," the Chinese official said."Are you serious?" the woman responded.The official described the exercise as having "a bit of a spy thriller about it". The woman suggested she could be arrested.After the police search but before her arrest, police said the 37-year-old was recorded telling a business associate:"… someone is interested in this thing. And then told me that it's inconvenient to use Google in China, so asked me to use Google to search," she said.The 25-year-old man is also alleged to have told police, "If I was asked to get some information from online, I would just do it".All three are free on bail and have indicated pleas of not guilty.Last week, the court heard that the closest any of the three have come to the Buddhist group was for the man to attempt to phone them, but the call was unanswered.Their cases will return to court later in the year.Posted 8m ago8 minutes agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 7:50pmShare optionsCopy linkFacebookX (formerly Twitter)PromotionTop StoriesAustralian couple's desperate plea amid international surrogacy nightmareTopic:Surrogacy