Government take steps to stop Beijing-backed ‘agents of influence’ threat

Three years ago, ASIO’s director-general of security secretly briefed Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten on what he described as a threat to national security “on an unprecedented scale”.

Three years ago, ASIO’s director general of security Duncan Lewis secretly briefed the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition leader Bill Shorten on what he described as a threat to national security “on an unprecedented scale”.

He told the men and other senior members of the parliamentary executive in no uncertain terms about State-backed foreign interference activity and the risks specifically from taking political donations from Chinese figures that could compromise Australia’s national security.

The name Huang Xiangmo was one name referenced as former Beijing-backed lobbyist.

A similar Cabinet room briefing was given again at the start of 2017.

Lewis was apparently listened to but not heard more broadly as both the Coalition and Labor continued to take money from Chinese influencers including Huang.

Now the most substantive and overt step toward combating this perceived threat has been taken with the cancelling of Huang’s permanent residency and blocking his return to his $13 million Sydney mansion home.

Billionaire political donor Huang Xiangmo outside the Sydney Opera House. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Central to this decision taken by Home Affairs and the Immigration Department on the recommendation by ASIO was Huang’s apparent paid-up role in the Chinese Communist Party’s shadowy United Front Work Department.

The department’s overseas role is to politically and socially influence opinion on Beijing’s most contentious issues including the militarisation of the South China Sea, its sprawling Belt and Road Initiative across Europe and Asia and its aid development program across the Pacific.

In Australia security agencies estimate there could be anything up to 1000 agents of influence depending on definition, ranging from actual spies seeking to gain political insight and details of military and energy projects and infrastructure through to local Chinese community leaders, university students and lobby groups and associations pushing Beijing’s lines.

Huang Xiangmo (left) with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the 2016 Chinese New Year Lantern Festival.

As far back as the start of the decade and ASIO and the AFP confidentially noted four former Peoples Liberation Army members had been dispatched to Sydney’s Chinatown to assist a well-known Haymarket businessman and restaurateur extend his influence in the community for political and other gain.

Guidance through coercion has long been a hall mark of how Beijing shuts down critics particularly among Chinese-Australian media and commentators.

Former deputy director of Australia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) and now Australian Strategic Policy Institute security analyst Michael Shoebridge said yesterday the stranding of Huang was just the start.

“I think it is a very significant decision around the broader agenda of foreign interference in Australian domestic environment,” he said.

“It is a significant step, the foreign interference legislation which was passed hasn’t led to any prosecutions yet and partly because it is fairly new but this step shows very serious intent around that counter foreign interference agenda and is probably the first substantive implementation of that agenda.”

He added: “The Chinese State has real money and real government organisations devoting full time and attention to influencing political decision making and economic thought leaders and other community leaders in a whole lot of countries and certainly within Australia … it is real, it’s not like engaging people from another country who have views, there is a government agenda that is resourced and has a structure behind it.”

The Australia China Relations Institute based at the University of Technology Sydney was set up with a $1.8 million donation from Huang; they said yesterday they did not know about his case now.

“The Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney and its director Professor the Honourable Bob Carr have no knowledge of Mr Huang Xiangmo’s situation save for what was reported in today’s papers,” a spokesman said.

They declined to answer questions or comment further.

Yuhu Group chief executive Huang Xiangmo and Sam Dastyari at a press conference for the Chinese community in Sydney in June, 2016 at the Commonwealth parliamentary offices in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

The office of Immigration Minister David Coleman also declined to comment saying the minister never spoke about individual cases and why certain decisions are taken.

Clive Hamilton, academic and author of ‘Silent Invasion — China’s influence in Australia’, said yesterday Huang’s citizenship blocking had been expected since the Dastyari affair but the government wanted to make its case watertight and cleverly do it while he was overseas and avoid a messy deportation.

“The threat of Chinese Communist Party influence in Australia is grave, extensive and very worrying,” he said. “The intelligence services are devoting far more resources to tracking Beijing’s operatives and influence activities and it’s without doubt the major security threat to Australia. Australia has been in denial for many years … if on the basis of ASIO advice Huang Xiangmo has been deemed unfit to be a citizen of Australia where does that leave the host of current and former politicians who have enjoyed his patronage and cosied up to him? I think there are some serious questions to be asked of these people who have been happy to be his friend and take his money.”