Belt and Road businessman Stephen Tsung backs Beijing on Hong Kong ‘thugs’

Tasmanian Belt and Road businessman backs Beijing on Hong Kong ‘thugs’.

Hobart-based Australian-Chinese businessman Stephen Tsung. Source: Facebook

An Australian-Chinese businessman running a “One Belt, One Road’’ consultancy in Tasmania has attacked opponents of Hong Kong’s security laws as “anti-Chinese­ … hypocrites” and those protesting against it as “thugs”.

Hobart-based Stephen Tsung, a longstanding Australian citizen originally from China, spruiks his OBOR China Consultants as able to use “connections” in Hong Kong and China, and its knowledge of Chinese “authorities” to facilitate business deals.

However, Mr Tsung said it was purely a private enterprise facilit­ating trade and investment ­between Tasmanian and Chinese firms, with no official links to China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative.

On May 29, the Shanghai-born Australian citizen used Facebook to defend the imposition of a national security law on the former­ British colony, accusing its critics of “jumping to all these anti-Chinese conclusions”.

About these new security Hong Kong laws, before jumping to all these anti-China conclusions can we take an objective...

Posted by Stephen Tsung on Thursday, 28 May 2020

“If we analyse these proposed laws one by one, you will find most of these laws are laws already long enacted in ‘Western Countries’,” Mr Tsung posted.  “Therefore, if these laws are good for the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, why are they not good for Hong Kong? … Perhaps it is ‘do as I say not as I do’ syndrome or anything CCP (Chinese Communist Party) China proposes is of utmost­ suspicion …”

In an earlier post, Mr Tsung, who said he had lived in Australia for 60 years, lambasted critics of federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu, who is under fire for alleged links to organisations associated with China’s State Council.

In 2018, Mr Tsung made a submission on OBOR letterhead in support of a planning application by a Hobart-based Buddhist sect headed by Xin De Wang.

Master Wang last year rejected claims he had used WeChat to call for Hong Kong protesters to be executed.

Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O’Connor expressed concern over Mr Tsung’s comments and “promotion” of China’s OBOR initiative.

“Mr Tsung enjoys­ the democratic freedoms of life and doing business in Tasman­ia but, curiously, he is an apologist for the Chinese government’s ruthless takeover of Hong Kong and suppression of pro-democracy activists,” Ms O’Connor said.

“While much of the world has looked on aghast at the fate of Hongkongers, Mr Tsung is making false comparisons between Beijing’s actions and the laws of Western democracies … In Aust­ralia, we don’t jail people for singing subversive songs and speaking up for human rights.

“Unlike Victoria, Tasmania hasn’t signed up to Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road, but a company promoting ‘One Belt One Road’ has put out a shingle in Hobart and is apparently doing business … Tasmanians are entitled to ask what’s the agenda here?”

Mr Tsung, who said he had business offices in Hobart, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, stood by his claim that many elements­ of China’s Hong Kong national security law were similar to provisions in Western nations.

However, he said after more recently seeing the law’s detail he now shared some concerns.

“Those comments were made before­ the legislation was made public … there are certainly (now apparent) some elements you can be critical of … which may not be fair on the Hong Kong people,” he said.

Even so, he viewed Hong Kong protesters who had burned things and rioted­ to be “thugs”.