Melbourne man with Liberal Party links charged under foreign interference laws

A Melbourne man with suspected links to Beijing's overseas influence arm has become the first person charged under Australia's landmark foreign interference laws.

The arrest of Di Sanh Duong, a former Liberal Party candidate, comes as relations between China and Australia have deteriorated to the worst point in decades as Chinese authorities threaten Australian exporters with billions of dollars in trade strikes.

Di Sanh Duong, 65, has been charged in Melbourne with preparing an act of foreign interference within Australia.Credit: Supplied.

Mr Duong has previously been named as sitting on the board of key Chinese influence organisation, the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification. Fellow directors have previously included Huang Xiangmo, who Australian security agencies have banned from re-entering Australia.

The arrest will have international reverberations, after other countries have eagerly awaited to see how Australian authorities would prosecute the nation's foreign interference laws passed in 2018.

Mr Duong, who also goes by the Chinese name of Yang Yisheng, was on Thursday charged with preparing an act of foreign interference within Australia after a year-long investigation by counter-espionage agency ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. He faces a maximum of ten years in prison.

Federal police officers raided a number of properties in greater Melbourne on October 16 in connection with the case.

The AFP alleges Mr Duong has a connection to a foreign intelligence agency, but has not named which country.

Mr Duong, 65, ran for the Liberal Party in the state seat of Richmond in 1996, party sources confirmed. Multiple Liberal sources confirmed he has been close to the party for a number of decades.

Mr Duong is the President of Oceania Federation of Chinese Associations and is on the board of the Museum of Chinese Australian History in Melbourne. Other directors of the museum have included Mike Yang, a former senior adviser to Premier Daniel Andrews.

Mr Yang said he may have met Mr Duong, but didn't know him well.

The Oceania Federation of Chinese Associations is a global group for Chinese people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Government sources confirmed there had been growing concern about the organisation being influenced by United Front figures.

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge and Di Sanh Duong in June.

Mr Duong appeared in a June media conference at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge to announce a $37,450 donation to the hospital.

"Thank you very much Mr Tudge and Christine, the CEO of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. I'm the President of the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations ... Our organisation [inaudible]… regularly organising so many fundraiser charity work for a lot of the country, including Victoria a few years ago, the bushfire [inaudible]. And even January, we donate $200,000 for Victoria rural fire appeal," Mr Duong said, according to a transcript of the press conference.

"We are living in Aussie for 38 years, even myself, and that's why we always care. We care about what's happening for Australia. And that's why we, right away, fundraising for the hospital to show our thank you for the frontline workers."

Mr Tudge thanked Mr Duong for the "incredibly generous" donation and called the Chinese association a "terrific community organisation".

"I want to say a very big thank you to you directly Sunny Duong and your organisation … We live in the greatest multicultural nation on earth bar none and I think this pandemic is another great illustration of how we've come together," Mr Tudge said.

Mr Duong is currently a director of a company called D/Z Construction Materials and Stone Wholesale and was formerly a director of Melbourne Community Television Consortium.

Di Sanh Duong's Surrey Hills home.Credit: Nine News

Mr Duong appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday afternoon and was granted bail. He will appear for a committal mention hearing on March 11 next year.

The leafy Surrey Hills street where Mr Duang resides was calm on Thursday night. A woman watched from the window of his home after refusing to speak with The Age.

Neighbours, who did not want to be identified, said multiple AFP cars and officers descended on the well-manicured street around 7am on October 16.

"At least 12 officers minimum went in," they said. "They came in with equipment for asking questions, they were checking computers. Coming and going for hours."

On the day of his arrest, just two police cars and a small number of officers spent around one hour at the house, according to the neighbours.

Neighbours said the family had only moved in two years ago and that there was a period where they were not seen for weeks.

"There was a stage where they disappeared for a few weeks but they came back."

The arrest follows a year-long investigation by the Counter Foreign Interference taskforce, led by ASIO and the AFP, which was probing his relationship with a foreign intelligence agency.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said he was the first person in Australia to be charged with a foreign interference offence since the federal parliament passed wide-ranging foreign interference laws in 2018. The AFP said the matter remains an ongoing investigation.

"The CFI Taskforce has taken preventative action to disrupt this individual at an early stage," Mr McCartney said.

"Foreign interference is contrary to Australia’s national interest, it goes to the heart of our democracy.

"It is corrupting and deceptive, and goes beyond routine diplomatic influence practiced by governments."

ASIO was questioning a number of Chinese-Australians late last year and earlier this year about the actions of at least one figure close to senior Victorian politicians earlier this year.

In 2018, the Turnbull government passed legislation targeting foreign interference in politics and other domestic affairs.

The measures responded to repeated warnings from intelligence chiefs that foreign countries were trying to access classified information about Australia's global alliances and military, as well as its critical infrastructure.

Espionage, treason and treachery offences were expanded, while acting with a foreign country to influence Australia's democracy was criminalised and carried penalties of up to 20 years' jail. Mr Duong could be subject to a lesser maximum penalty of ten years because authorities allege he was planning to commit an offence but did not carry it out.

Government sources confirmed the evidence won't suggest alleged plans to engage in foreign interference were advanced, but only preparatory.

Unlike other high-profile investigations of national importance, the AFP chose not to call a press conference or issue any detail about the alleged offending or the foreign state linked to it.

One official source questioned why the AFP had taken a deliberate decision to release almost no information about the matter. In other major cases - such as terror, drug or paedophile busts - a significant charge is announced in a press conference where more detail is usually given about the alleged offending.

With Rachael Dexter

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