Millionaire Chinese property developer quietly expelled for ‘harming security interests’

The federal government has expelled a millionaire businessman from Australia after accusing him of carrying out tasks for a Chinese intelligence operative and working covertly in a way that advanced Beijing’s interests.

The recent expulsion of property developer Zheng Jiefu is one of several cases in which long-time Australian residents have been deported or barred entry into the country because of their suspected ties to Beijing’s security or foreign interference apparatus.

Zheng Jiefu has been expelled from Australia.Credit: Joe Armao

Over the past three years, spy agency ASIO has quietly deported several Chinese businessmen and journalists, accusing them of ties to the Ministry of State Security or Chinese foreign interference agencies. ASIO, the federal government and human rights groups have warned for a number of years that Beijing was directing its proxies to approach members of the Chinese diaspora in Australia to put pressure on their relatives in China.

Official sources who cannot be named because they are not authorised to speak publicly, say ASIO accused Mr Zheng of engaging in foreign interference in Australia on behalf of China, a claim the wealthy businessman has denied.

Mr Zheng’s alleged activities are said to include offering money to an Australian student in a way that could place pressure on his father, a human rights activist detained in China. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have spoken to multiple sources, including government insiders and supporters of Mr Zheng, to confirm elements of Mr Zheng’s expulsion case.

Mr Zheng, a Brighton resident who has a wife and children in Australia and has invested an estimated $40 million into Australian property and other business ventures, is also accused by ASIO of repeatedly interacting with a suspected Chinese spy who was carrying out operations in Australia.

ASIO has quietly deported several Chinese businessmen and journalists, accusing them of ties to the Ministry of State Security or Chinese foreign interference agencies.

Mr Zheng visited Australia in 2008 to attend a daughter’s graduation before applying for residency and buying an $8.25 million Brighton mansion. While living in Melbourne, Mr Zheng has been appointed to the board of at least one Chinese cultural group.

The revelation of the Zheng expulsion case, as well as Mr Zheng’s decision to fight the Australian government from China, is likely to inflame ongoing tensions between Canberra and Beijing. Australia and China have spent years accusing each other of covert meddling in their respective internal affairs.

Two Australians, news broadcaster Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun, are currently detained in China, accused of breaching national security laws. Their charging and detention has sparked repeated rebukes of Beijing from Foreign Minister Marise Payne.

The federal government’s most high-profile resident expulsion is that of Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire gambler and political donor in Sydney who was barred from Australia in February 2019 after ASIO accused him of being prone to engage in acts of foreign interference. Mr Huang denies any wrongdoing.

Huang Xiangmo and Bill Shorten in 2013.Credit: James Brickwood

Foreign interference involves acts that are clandestine or coercive, carried out on behalf of a foreign state and which are aimed at influencing Australia’s political system or harming national security.

The Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, led by ASIO and the AFP, has charged Melbourne businessman Sunny Duong with engaging in foreign interference on behalf of China. Sydney man John Zhang, a former staffer of ex-Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane, was also the subject of an investigation into whether he collaborated with Beijing to influence NSW politics.

The expulsion of Mr Zheng occurred some time last year, after ASIO first warned the federal government in 2020 that he posed a security risk. Among the disputed accusations that ASIO has levelled at him are that he had ongoing contact with an official from the Ministry of State Security, China’s civil intelligence agency.

This suspected senior spy allegedly requested that Mr Zheng approach the Melbourne-based son of a detained human rights activist in China and offer him $20,000. Sources said ASIO suspects the offer of a meeting and funds, which were both refused by the student, amounted to an attempt to place pressure on his father to cease criticising Beijing.

A source close to Mr Zheng said it was merely an offer of charity.

ASIO also suspects the suspected spy asked Mr Zheng to undertake other activities including searching for the Australian assets of a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party security official, Liu Yanping. Mr Liu was in March accused by Chinese authorities of the “suspected violation of discipline and law”, a term that is typically a euphemism for corruption.

There is no suggestion or evidence that Mr Zheng is himself an intelligence operative, but the sources have confirmed that Mr Zheng confirmed to ASIO officers in 2020 that he had assisted an elusive Chinese figure carry out certain tasks in Australia. In an interview with ASIO, Mr Zheng said the figure had never asked him to do anything that would affect the security of Australia, and that the relationship between China and Australia “should be treasured”.

According to his supporters, Mr Zheng insists he only helped the suspected spy with mundane tasks. Mr Zheng’s ultimate aim was to encourage Chinese authorities to help him recover money he claims was stolen from his company in China.

While Mr Zheng has kept a low profile in Australia for several years, he actively sought publicity in the Australian press in 2015 to raise allegations his $2 billion Chinese conglomerate had been corruptly stripped of its assets.

Mr Zheng’s allegations of being ripped off appear to have aligned him with the Chinese government’s Ministry of State Security because the man Mr Zheng claims had stolen from his company is Chinese fugitive billionaire Guo Wengui, who for years has been targeted by the ministry.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, right, greets fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui in New York.Credit: Don Emmert

Mr Guo fled to New York in 2014 after being accused of corruption by the Chinese government. He has since become one of the Chinese Communist Party’s fiercest critics, conducting interviews with press outlets across the world.

Mr Zheng declined to answer questions from this masthead about his expulsion, but it is understood he has told his lawyers to lodge a legal challenge against his adverse security assessment.

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