Nancy Yang mobilised Chinese students for ALP campaign

Chinese Communist Party-linked Andrews government staffer Nancy Yang organised dozens of Chinese students to campaign for Labor in 2013.

Nancy Yang.

Chinese Communist Party-linked Andrews government staffer Nancy Yang organised dozens of Chinese students from her United Front-linked youth group to campaign for Labor in the lead-up to the 2013 federal election.

Posts on Chinese social media feature the students and Labor identities, including now Premier Daniel Andrews, former MP David Feeney, former Speaker Anna Burke, former state MP Hong Lim and his colleague Robin Scott, who last week resigned as multicultural affairs minister over the Adem Somyu­rek branch-stacking scandal.

The revelations come after The Australian revealed on Monday that Ms Yang did the same Chinese Communist Party propaganda training course as the part-time NSW Labor staffer at the centre of Friday’s ASIO raids.

The Australian has also previously revealed that Ms Yang, who works in Mr Andrews’s electorate office, had as recently as March posted articles on social media suggesting the coronavirus was created by the US and taken to China by the US Army.

As a Melbourne Chinese consulate staff member and founder and chair of the Melbourne Chinese Youth United Association — a role she held for a decade until 2016 — Ms Yang also helped to mobilise thousands of Chinese who travelled to Canberra to participate in an at-times violent counter-protest against human rights campaigners at the Olympic Torch relay in 2008.

It was this organisation that Ms Yang mobilised to help Labor hand out how-to-vote cards ahead of the 2013 election.

On MCYUA’s profile on Chinese social media platform Weibo, Ms Yang posted invitations to Labor events in the lead-up to the election, including a Young Labor forum featuring then opposition leader Mr Andrews and now Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.

It was spruiked as “another opportunity for close contact with Victorian parliamentarians”.

A post following the election features a photograph of dozens of Chinese students surrounding Mr Andrews, Mr Feeney, Ms Burke, Mr Lim and Mr Scott, noting they had “made a special trip to appreciate our support”.

The United Front Work Department is the Chinese Com­munist Party’s primary overseas influence and interference network.

Asked whether the Andrews government was confident the Victorian ALP had not put Australia’s sovereignty at risk by accepting the assistance of dozens of Chinese students who are members of a CCP-linked youth group with Australian elections, or stacking branches with such ­people, a spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said the government valued “the outstanding contribution Nancy makes every day for her local community.”