Federal Liberal MPs push for investigation into SA Upper House president nominee Jing Lee’s links to China
Three federal Liberal MPs have asked the party to investigate state MLC Jing Lee’s links to China just a day after she was selected to become the President of the Upper House.
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Three senior Liberal MPs have requested the party investigate South Australian Upper House MP Jing Lee over her links to China.
A joint letter from federal MPs Tony Pasin, Nicolle Flint and Alex Antic was sent to the Liberal Party state executive overnight after they had sent written to the party President John Olsen and State Director Sascha Meldrum last week but had not received a response.
In the letter the trio, all from the conservative faction of the party, raised concerns about news reports linking Ms Lee to the Chinese Communist Party and the United Front Work Department.
Ms Lee, a moderate, was on Thursday selected by the party as its candidate for the President of the Upper House - a role to be left vacant with the resignation of Terry Stephens.
Last month Ms Lee defended her work with various multicultural groups, including the Xinjiang Association of SA – which has alleged links to the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Government and denies there is any persecution of China’s Uighur ethnic minority.
Ms Lee also said she did not support the now controversial Chinese Belt and Road initiative.
“I am a proud Australian citizen focused on building relationships with people from all multicultural communities that are represented in South Australia,” she said at the time.
“I have attended hundreds of multicultural functions as a parliamentarian and to suggest that I share the political views of the people who make up all those organisations is absurd.”
In the letter from Ms Flint, Mr Antic and Mr Pasin, the MPs said “given the federal government’s strong position on foreign interference, we consider any Liberal member who is reported to have links to the Chinese Communist Party and the United Front Work Department, is operating contrary to fundamentally important Liberal Party policy and Party principles.”
“Of particular concern is The Australian’s reporting that ‘Ms Lee has emerged as a major supporter of Beijing within the SA parliament, warning fellow Liberal MPs against meeting with the banned group Falun Gong for fear of offending China and also speaking at a consulate-general function in Adelaide in 2017 promoting China’s Belt and Road Initiative, where she urged SA to do as Victoria has done and sign on to the controversial infrastructure program’.
“For these reasons we consider these links must be independently investigated, as a matter of urgency, by the Liberal Party of Australia (SA Division) to ensure the integrity of our party and our party organisation, and we call on state executive to ensure this occurs.”
South Australia’s most senior MP in Canberra, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, threw his support behind Ms Lee.
“Jing is one of the hardest-working, community-oriented MPs that I’ve ever known, who has consistently demonstrated her love for our state and country,” Senator Birmingham said.
“She in no way deserves to be the target of destructive behaviour.”
