Australian Police Charge Chinese National With 'Foreign Interference'

China's security apparatus has long been accused of infiltrating community organisations as a way to keep tabs on expats and dissidents, but it is rare that a major trading partner such as Australia so bluntly links Beijing to a covert influence plot (Credit: AFP)

Australian police said Monday they had charged a Chinese national with "reckless foreign interference", accusing the woman of spying on local Buddhists for Beijing.

Assistant police commissioner Stephen Nutt said the unnamed woman had been covertly gathering information on the Guan Yin Citta Buddhist association in Australia's capital, Canberra.