Dan Andrews and China’s Aussie influencer
A YouTube biography provides insight into the key player in Daniel Andrews’s decision to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Meet Jean Dong. She is the 32-year-old Chinese-Australian businesswoman who by her own description is on a global “journey of influence”.
A professionally filmed and edited YouTube biography provides an extraordinary insight into the life of the young woman who is emerging as a key player in the unfolding political row over Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’s controversial decision to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
In the short promotional film, Ms Dong claims to have played key roles in bringing about the China-Australia free-trade agreement, and Victoria’s Belt and Road Initiative deal, telling the story of her journey from student journalist in Beijing, to rubbing shoulders with Australian prime ministers and premiers and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Australian can reveal that Ms Dong, director and chief executive of the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative company, was part of a youth delegation sent to China in 2014, alongside Mike Yang, a former adviser to Mr Andrews.
Mr Yang is credited with being the architect of the strong and enduring relationship between Mr Andrews and China’s communist government.
Asked whether the pair met each other on the trip, and whether they had an ongoing association, Ms Dong’s spokesman said only: “Mike Yang had left the Victorian government when ACBRI was asked to advise on BRI opportunities.”
Mr Yang, who was photographed with Mr Andrews on the Great Wall of China in 2013, has been a vice-president of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, an organisation criticised as being a front for spreading pro-Community Party policies and messages in Australia. Mr Yang has defended the group, describing it as nothing more than another Chinese community group.
The Australian revealed on Monday that ACBRI was awarded two taxpayer-funded contracts valued at $36,850 to advise the Andrews government on the Belt and Road Inititiative.
Ms Dong’s 2015 promotional video, entitled Journey of Influence, shows her standing on a bayside promontory with Melbourne’s skyline behind her, speaking of the people she says have been inspirational “sparks” in her life.
It was recorded during her time as managing director of Spark Corporation Group — a business she has described as being focused on Chinese investment in Australian agriculture and resources and “expansion of Australian businesses into Chinese markets through strategic partnerships”.
“It was my mother that first inspired me that nothing comes easy, but never give up. At the age of three, I started playing the piano,” Ms Dong says, as the video cuts to her engaged in a musical performance.
“It was the first female journalists who lived in war zones and promoted peace through reporting the truth that inspired me to understand that having courage and purpose to always keep me motivated to fight for what I believe.
“At the age of 11, I challenged the old Chinese media rules and opened the doors for thousands of youth to raise their voice.”
Ms Dong’s profile when she attended the Australia-China Youth Dialogue in Beijing with Mr Yang in 2014 said she had “enjoyed a rich experience as the editor of Youth newspaper (China) and national reporter for CCTV television station (China)”.
China Central Television is the predominant network in mainland China, owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
It is not clear which newspaper Ms Dong was describing in her reference to “Youth”. Asked whether she was referring to the China Youth Daily — run by the Communist Youth League of China — a spokesman for Ms Dong played down her role. “Jean has never been a career journalist,” he said. “She was briefly a volunteer reporter for a high school student newspaper before she came to Australia as a teenager.”
Ms Dong studied commerce at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 2009, and gained employment with consulting firm PwC.
“At the age of 21 I presented and convinced the PwC Australian leadership to consider Asia growth as a priority strategy and to achieve a clear advantage over its competitors,” Ms Dong says in her video as photos are displayed of her with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, then Tasmanian Liberal premier Will Hodgman and former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr.
“At the age of 26 I successfully facilitated a mutual and long-term economic collaboration agreement through China-Australia free-trade agreement for both countries,” she says as a photo appears of then prime minister Tony Abbott, Mr Xi and then trade minister Andrew Robb signing ChAFTA. The Australian has established that in 2014 Ms Dong entered the orbit of Mr Yang. The two emerging influential figures in the Chinese-Australian community were delegates at the 2014 Australia-Chinese Youth Dialogue in Beijing.
Mr Yang worked for Mr Andrews while he was opposition leader, from 2011 to 2013, and is credited with being the architect of the now Premier’s pro-China strategy. There were only 30 delegates to the Beijing conference.
While it is unclear if the pair interacted during the conference, it is the first known association between Ms Dong and someone close to the Andrews camp.
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