Labor Party donor developer on China visit with Premier Daniel Andrews

A CHINESE property developer appeared beside Premier Daniel Andrews on a government trip to China, soon after donating more than $50,000 to the Labor Party.

CHINESE property developer appeared beside Premier Daniel Andrews on a government trip to China, soon after donating more than $50,000 to the Labor Party.

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The Herald Sun can reveal Guo Jing Chen — who once said Australia “couldn’t survive” without Chinese ­migrants — met Mr Andrews during the 2016 trip. But the state government says it did not invite him or pay for his travel or accommodation.

Mr Andrews’s former ­adviser Mike Yang, who the Herald Sun revealed on Tuesday was a senior figure in an Australian lobby group linked to China’s Communist Party, also appeared on the visit.

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Hong Lim, Daniel Andrews and Guo Jing Chen as the Labor leader gets a cheque from Mr Lim's Clarinda branch.

He posted on Facebook that he was “pleased to be invited by Premier Andrews and Melbourne Victory”, as part of his commercial role with the soccer club. Asked on social media why Mr Guo Jing was there, Mr Yang said he was “a good friend”.

The developer, who runs CBD Development Group, is a prominent supporter of parliamentary secretary for Asia engagement Hong Lim, who the Herald Sun revealed on Tuesday was a former adviser to the Communist Party-linked Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful ­Reunification of China.

Mr Guo Jing and his business were major sponsors of Mr Lim’s $70-a-head pre-election fundraiser in 2014, where he sat on the VIP table with Mr Andrews and Mr Yang. He stood beside Mr Andrews as the then opposition leader received a $100,000 cheque from Mr Lim’s Clarinda ALP branch.

Mike Yang (right) and Guo Jing Chen (third from right) pictured with Daniel Andrews on his 2016 China trip.

He gave $10,000 to the ALP Victoria branch in February and May 2016, $30,000 in June and $1176 weeks later.

In September, Mr Guo Jing was pictured with Mr Andrews and Mr Yang on the China trip, along with Melbourne Victory representatives, as part of an announcement about Victoria’s new Chinese sister-state, Sichuan.

The property developer once said in an interview: “If there were no Chinese, Australia couldn’t survive. Why?

“Luxury housing and expensive cars are all bought up by us Chinese ... Mineral and energy resources are all bought up by us Chinese.”

In 2011, Mr Chen and his company were fined $67,500 for food safety breaches at Bentleigh’s CK Foodstore. Inspectors found piles of rotten food, mould on walls, and flies in food preparation areas.

n48ms708 CK Food store at Bentleigh has been fined more than $70000 by Glen Eira Council after Health Act breaches

The Herald Sun tried to contact Mr Guo Jing via his company, without success.

Mr Andrews refused to answer questions about Mr Lim’s and Mr Yang’s connections on Tuesday, saying that the story was “a joke”.

Asked whether Mr Lim should have declared his positions with the ACPPRC and the Chinese Community Council of Australia’s Victorian branch on the parliamentary register of interests, he said: “They would need to be an office-bearer … people should declare everything that the legislation requires them to properly declare … I have nothing further to say about this story.”

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