Francis James

Alfred Francis Phillip James (21 April 191824 August 1992) was an Australian publisher known for being imprisoned in China as a spy.

Early life and education Alfred Francis Phillip James was born on 21 April 1918 in Queenstown, Tasmania He was expelled the next year after a theological dispute with the headmaster. The Anglican Press went into receivership in 1960, and was subject to a takeover bid by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press (ACP). This coincided with competition between Sir Frank Packer and Rupert Murdoch for the share of the suburban newspaper market. In turn that led to a notorious brawl at the Anglican Press between Clyde and Kerry Packer, on the one hand, and James and the journalist and former boxer Frank Browne, on the other. He identified four personnel in China's nuclear programme, listed accurately the details of China's early nuclear tests from October 1964 onwards, and wrote of China's ambitious settlement policy to outnumber the Uyghurs in the northwest. The exposé "brought denials from the Chinese and criticism from a number of professional China watchers."

James went on to the United Kingdom and (in October 1969) Hong Kong followed by Guangdong, China where he was arrested on November 4 for alleged spying. After over three years' imprisonment, described as "constant interrogation and solitary confinement", he was released and expelled in 1973 after lobbying by his old friend Gough Whitlam, who was then Prime Minister.

Death Francis James died on 24 August 1992, aged 74.