I have no criminal links: Chinese official

Melbourne: A Chinese official who was denied entry to Australia for the Sydney Olympics due to "security concerns" has said he is willing to pay $1 million to anyone who proves that he is a criminal or is connected in any way to crime syndicates.

"I have attended many Games. How can they refuse me? I have not done anything wrong. I have never joined any illegal organisation," Carl Ching, 60, told Hong Kong's 'Sunday Morning Post' newspaper.

The Hong Kong-based Ching urged "all international governments" to investigate him. "If you can find anything wrong with me, if I do any illegal business, I will kill myself," Ching said. But, in spite of Ching's claims, this is not the first time that he has been barred by a country from entering its territory.

In 1994, Canada had refused him entry to attend a basketball tournament on the same grounds as the Australians. It is believed that the Canadian ban against Ching is still in force. Hong Kong's independent Commission Against Corruption had started investigations against him but they did not take any action.

However, Ching admitted that he had links with a corrupt former Hong Kong policeman Lui Lok and late Filipino dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. Lui Lok had fled Hong Kong in 1976 with allegedly $ 70 million made through corrupt practices. But Ching denied any links with Asian triads.

Ching has threatened to sue the Australian government over the ban. He has also threatened to go to the United Nations and termed the ban "racial discrimination and insult".

Ching said that he would approach all sports associations against the Australian action. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had raised objections over the ban and asked Australian Prime Minister John Howard for an explanation.

IOC chief Juan Antonio Samaranch was later convinced that Australian concerns were genuinely related to, in Howard's words, "safety and security of the Australian community".

Gafur Rakhimov of Uzbekistan was also denied permission to attend the Sydney Games as he was alleged to have links with the crime mafia in Russia.

India Abroad News Service