’Community ambassadors’ linked to Chinese Community Party

Two figures with links to the Chinese Communist Party were selected by the Andrews government to deliver coronavirus health messages to Victorians.

Former health minister Jenny Mikakos with Junxi Su, president of Federation of Chinese Association of Victoria.

Two senior figures in organisations linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign influence operation were chosen as COVID-19 “community ambassadors” by the state government.

Arthur Wu and Junxi Su are members of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, part of China’s United Front, which the Communist Party describes as “a bridge and a bond for the party and government to connect with overseas Chinese compatriots”.

The Herald Sun can reveal they were selected by the Andrews government to deliver Chinese-language coronavirus health messages to Victorians. They received $400 gift cards in return.

Communist Party interference expert Professor Clive Hamilton said the appointments meant the Andrews government was “giving legitimacy to them”.

“They now have the government’s imprimatur,” he said. “The government is entrenching the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Melbourne’s Chinese community.”

But the government defended the appointments, arguing the pair were trusted community leaders.

Arthur Wu.

Junxi Su.

“Our community ambassador videos have done an amazing job reaching out to their local communities with vital health advice, recognising the only way to beat this wildly infectious virus is by all Victorians working together,” a government spokeswoman said.

Mr Wu is also listed as an executive vice-president of the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, which experts say is the top United Front organisation operating on our shores.

Ms Su, a deputy mayoral candidate in Melbourne in 2016, has also served as the head of the Federation of Chinese Associations of Victoria since 2014.

She has supported China’s disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea and criticised federal government laws to tackle foreign influence.

At the start of the pandemic, Ms Su dined at a Chinese restaurant with then health minister Jenny Mikakos and other Labor MPs to support the Chinese community.

She later told The Australian newspaper she was not particularly familiar with the United Front and it was not “very active” in Melbourne. “We don’t have much contact with them, probably one or two people,” she reportedly said.

Prof Hamilton said while the federal government was trying to suppress foreign interference, “the Victorian government appears to be supporting it”.

“United Front organisations in Melbourne aim to present China’s regime in the best possible light and to silence dissenting views in the Chinese-Australian community,” he said.

“For critics of the CCP in the community, speaking out just became that little bit harder.”

The Herald Sun was unable to contact Mr Wu and Ms Su.

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