Southport MP Rob Molhoek hosted twice in China by billionaire Li Ruipeng, who has $30 million debts

SOUTHPORT MP Rob Molhoek has distanced himself from a Chinese businessman who gave him a $26,000 designer watch and is wanted by police in China over debts worth $30 million.

QLD_GCB_NEWS_MOLHOEK_19FEB16_SKENE(2)

SOUTHPORT MP Rob Molhoek has distanced himself from a Chinese businessman who gave him a $26,000 designer watch and is wanted by police in China over debts worth $30 million.

Speaking for the first time about how his marriage and career crumbled over the course of an explosive year, Mr Molhoek said a rushed breakfast with billionaire Li Ruipeng had seen him pursuing investments from China and led to him travelling there four times since.

The meeting also set him on a path to declaring his interest in a different Chinese asset – new partner Weiqun “Lucy” Gu.

Mr Li’s dalliances with Australian politicians have become notorious in recent weeks, with Fadden MP Stuart Robert losing his ministry with the Turnbull Federal Government during the fallout from a trip to China and from organising a dinner with the businessman and key Liberal party figures, including then-Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

It is now widely reported that Mr Li, who made his fortune selling noodles, is wanted by Chinese authorities over unpaid debts to as many as 200 companies.

Mr Molhoek said he had twice been a guest of Mr Li in China and had dined with him “a couple of times” on the Gold Coast, before recently learning the businessman was “in a bit of hot water”.

The former Gold Coast councillor first ran into the chairman of Li Guancheng Investment Management Group in the halls of Parliament in June 2013 and invited him to the Coast in the hope of attracting him to invest in the city.

An assistant called a week later – Mr Li was staying at the Sheraton and wanted to see him for breakfast – after which the MP was presented with “a little velvet pouch”.

“I was just rushing, I went out to the car, threw it in the console and never thought more about it – just thought it was another set of chopstick holders or Chinese tea,” Mr Molhoek said.

“It wasn’t until the weekend that I opened it and went ‘Oh gosh’.”

Inside the pouch was a solid gold Cartier ladies watch worth almost $27,000.

Mr Li gave Southport MP Rob Molhoek a gold Cartier ladies watch worth $26,800, similar to the one pictured.

MPs in the Newman government had been read the riot act by their leader after he copped heavy scrutiny over his own family interests and ties to developers, so Mr Molhoek lodged the watch with Ministerial Services that Monday.

It was later auctioned by a children’s hospital foundation for almost $40,000.

A week earlier, Mr Li had visited Canberra for a now-notorious dinner with Mr Robert and Mr Abbott, where he had handed out designer watches worth $250,000 in the nation’s capital too – but the Federal MPs were slower to hand them in.

Mr Molhoek had made an impression at breakfast and Mr Li asked him to visit China – which Mr Molhoek did when he “had a week up my sleeve in holidays”.

“I went back and said ‘It’s a private holiday, it’s not an official trip. I’m not coming as a member of government, I just wanted to visit China,” he said.

Mr Li, then a congressman, organised the itinerary, introducing him to mayors and other prominent people across China and hosting him as a guest of the Chinese government at various hotels

“I disclosed all of that when I came back and I paid for all my own flights and train fares and all of that,” Mr Molhoek said.

The MP then set about organising a wider trip and Mr Li hosted a welcome dinner for him when he returned a year later with a dozen local businesspeople, who he declined to list in full.

Among them was Vicky Cao, who has approval for a multimillion-dollar development on the Star of the Sea convent site in Southport, and whose family the group visited in Xi’an.

State Member for Southport Rob Molhoek pictured with his fiance Lucy Gu. Picture: David Clark

Another delegate in the group was Ms Gu – Mr Molhoek’s new partner – who was not among the original Gold Coast group but met up with them through another Chinese businessman who Mr Molhoek declined to name.

“When we met in Guangzhou, I was not very interested,” Ms Gu told the Bulletin.

“My friends pushed me (to go on the trip) so I could know Australia better.”

Now the 39-year-old CEO is very interested – she’s bought into two companies north of Brisbane, NRG and Natural Vitality Group, which between them manufacture and distribute dietary supplements and other health products across Australia and beyond.

She has also created a new company – Asia Pacific Language and Business Institute – with a view to opening a language school, of which Mr Molhoek is a shareholder.

Mr Molhoek is also a director of the three companies related to Ms Gu’s businesses. He said he’d never charged taxpayers for any element of his travel to China and had declared any free accommodation he received on his register of interests.

Learning of increasing doubt over Mr Li’s business dealings, Mr Molhoek said, “I always take people as you find them”.

“He was a very gracious host,” he said, adding that he’d probably decline a dinner invitation next time the billionaire was in town.

“I’m cautious with everyone but when he invited me to go over I thought you don’t often get this opportunity to go visit.”

The MP said his Federal counterparts had been “a bit silly” in their dealings with Li’s watches.

“It’s like the Japanese in the 1970s – everybody’s courting Chinese people.

“The trouble is, you don’t know which ones are fake and which ones are not.”

NEW LOVE FOR MOLHOEK

ROB Molhoek has had two very different Christmases in a row.

In December 2014, he moved out of the family home into an apartment in Southport, his 27-year marriage over.

Two days before Christmas a year later, he moved with his new partner, Weiqun “Lucy” Gu, into a freshly-renovated home in Parkwood they’d purchased together in September.

State Member for Southport Rob Molhoek pictured with his fiance Lucy Gu. Pic by David Clark

The home is fresh white, with high ceilings, a new pool and a bunch of Valentine’s Day roses wilting in a vase on the dining room table.

“She scares the living daylights out of me,” the MP, 54, says.

“She’s so driven and so smart – it’s actually quite challenging to be with someone who’s just so far ahead of the game.

“She’s inspiring. She’s also, I’m trying to use the word without sounding corny, she’s also very beautiful – she has a great smile.”

Ms Gu, 39, is from a wealthy Chinese family – her parents own a secondary school of 6000 students in the city of Shenzen – and she runs her own shipping company, Ocean Pilot Logisitics, from the same city.

When she met Mr Molhoek on his second trip to China, she was not initially interested in him.

“On the second day, while we were on the bus, I just wanted to sleep, I didn’t want to talk,” she said.

“Later we just became friends because he was married.”

Life’s looking good for MP Rob Molhoek. Pic by David Clark

That was August 2014, and the pair kept in touch via text.

At that time Mr Molhoek’s marriage was “all melting down” – and it wasn’t the only thing that would jar during those months.

Five months later he had the blistering defeat of the 2015 election to contend with.

“Suddenly, you just hit this wall,” he said.

“I don’t ever think that we believed we’d be out of government.

“I was just hoping to be back in government and then next minute, you’re just kind of stuck and you’re powerless.”

Mr Molhoek said he “sat in limbo for eight weeks” before parliament resumed.

“The previous 12 months for me personally had been really difficult,” he said.

“It was a bit of a double whammy really.

“I moved out at Christmas time 2014 and that was interesting, to move out of a busy house and into an apartment by yourself in Southport – that was a bit of a culture shock as well, I have to say.

“But, things don’t always go how you expect in life – you’ve got to dust yourself off and get on with things.”

Which is what he did.

Rob Molhoek and his fiance Lucy Gu relax in the backyard of their home. Pic by David Clark

Ms Gu, who has a five-year-old son, had been two days into her first Australian visit so they could “get to know each other better” when the election was called and she cut the trip short.

She returned later and has been commuting monthly from Shenzen for the past 18 months.

Asked if the pair were planning to marry, Ms Gu said “Yeah”, while Mr Molhoek said “We’re still working on that”.

The father of four sons met Ms Gu’s parents for the first time this month, celebrating Chinese New Year with them in Shenzen.

“It was the start the year – it’s Chinese New Year – what gift do you buy potential in-laws,” he said.

“The advice that I got was that everybody gives each other money ... they’re well-off so I’m like ‘How much do I give them?’.

“So we decided on amounts that were symbolic of luck and prosperity, so I gave them an envelope each with that exact amount of money in them.

“Then the next morning at breakfast they gave them back to me with an extra $100 in them – saying they wanted to return the luck and prosperity and we want to give you more luck, so that was very nice.”