Australian jury records first conviction of foreign interference against a Chinese agent

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian court has recorded the first conviction under the nation’s foreign interference laws with a jury finding a Vietnamese refugee guilty of covertly working for the Chinese Communist Party. A Victoria State County Court jury convicted Melbourne businessman and local community leader Di Sanh Duong on Tuesday on a charge of preparing for or planning an act of foreign interference.H e is the first person to be charged under federal laws created in 2018 that ban covert foreign interference in domestic politics and make industrial espionage for a foreign power a crime. The laws offended Australia’s most important trading partner, China, and accelerated a deterioration in bilateral relations. Duong will be sentenced in February.