A psychotic Chinese immigrant who was jailed for 17 years for murdering his wife in Sydney has been spared deportation because he could face the death penalty in China.
Qinglin Chen, 47, strangled his wife to death at their home in Rydalmere in 2007, and in 2010 was sentenced to 23 years and 10 months’ imprisonment after being found guilty of murder. He was released in March 2025 after serving his 17.5-year non-parole period.
His murder trial heard he killed Weifang Chi after drinking red wine and then placed her in a bed and surrounded and covered her with blankets, ice, flowers and her favourite food, in accordance with Chinese tradition. Chi was in Australia as a student, and Chen was given a visa as her spouse.
Chen applied for a protection visa in 2023, and then a bridging visa in 2025 while in immigration detention, which was refused by a delegate of the immigration minister on the grounds he did not pass the character test.
But the wife-killer, who has been diagnosed with a psychotic disorder which is “most likely schizophrenia”, successfully appealed the decision in the Administrative Review Tribunal last week.
ART general member Rachel Da Costa found there was a “real risk [Chen] would be subject to double jeopardy and face the death penalty” if deported to China, and should be allowed to stay in Australia pending the outcome of his protection visa application.
In her decision she also cited a determination that Chen was a “low risk of reoffending”, “the meaningful level of rehabilitation he has achieved”, and fears he would become “further institutionalised while remaining in immigration detention”.
“The applicant has committed a single offence, which I have found was very serious, and I accept that if he were to commit the same offence again the harm would be very serious. However, I have found that [Chen] is at low risk of reoffending and he has a range of protective factors in his favour,” she said.
“[Chen] gave the impression of a person who still feels great remorse for his actions and is at pains to try to demonstrate the extent of the efforts he has undertaken in prison to rehabilitate himself, to show that he is a good person and essentially ‘atone’ for killing his wife.”
Chen also argued that he was at risk of being killed by his father-in-law if returned to China, and that he was concerned about getting access to the same level of mental health support that he has received while incarcerated in Australia.
Ms Da Costa described the risk of harm from his father-in-law as “speculative”, but agreed he “may face social stigma in attempting to re-establish himself in China, including difficulty securing employment, due to his past being known” and that “people with mental health conditions in China can face societal stigma”.
Her decision was made under guidance from Ministerial Direction 110, which has been maintained by immigration minister Tony Burke since 2024 despite it enabling the tribunal to allow dozens of serious criminals, including murderers, paedophiles and rapists, to stay in Australia.
During the same period Mr Burke has personally overseen the deportation of several individuals for their political opinions or affiliations, including South African civil engineer Matthew Gruter, who was deported in November for taking part in a peaceful and police approved protest and has no criminal history.
British veteran Ryan Turner had his visa cancelled for giving nationalist activists boxing lessons and is fighting deportation from immigration detention in Western Australia, and Ukrainian refugee Yan Zakharin is in immigration detention limbo in Melbourne after being charged over an alleged clash with far-left extremists in Melbourne.
Header image: Tony Burke celebrating Lunar New Year (Facebook).
