SA Liberal MP Jing Lee wipes photos over alleged Beijing links

Jing Lee deletes photographs from her social media accounts amid growing calls for an inquiry into SA’s Chinese consulate.

SA Liberal MP Jing Lee and her husband businessman Eddie Lieu at the Adelaide Festival Centre in 2016.

Besieged SA Liberal MP Jing Lee was busy deleting photographs from her social media accounts yesterday of her meetings with a Beijing-backed community organisation amid growing calls for a full inquiry into the conduct of SA’s Chinese consulate, with which she has had extensive dealings.

In a brief statement yesterday, the assistant minister to SA Premier Steven Marshall also recanted her previous support for the SA government to sign on for China’s One Belt One Road initiative.

“I am a proud Australian citizen focussed on building relationships with people from all multicultural backgrounds that are represented in SA,” Ms Lee said.

“I do not support and nor does the SA government One Belt One Road. I have attended thousands of multicultural functions as a parliamentarian and to suggest that I share the political views of the people who make up all of these organisations is absurd.”

The Australian revealed yesterday that Ms Lee has had close and frequent contact with the Xinjiang Association of SA, an organisation which denies any persecution of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority and which security experts have linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s international propaganda arm, the United Front Work Department.

Further, Ms Lee spoke at a Consulate-General function in Adelaide in 2017 promoting China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, where she urged SA to do as Victoria has done and sign on to the controversial infrastructure program.

Jing Lee, centre, poses with then-Opposition Leader, Premier Steven Marshall, and now-education minister John Gardiner at an SA Xinjiang Association function in November 2016.

She has also advised fellow Liberals not to meet with the banned spiritual group Falun Gong for fear of offending China and has close ties to a senior figure in Adelaide who is the SA vice-chairman of the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China.

That organisation has been cited by security experts as the key United Front propaganda body in Australia, with its advocacy for Hong Kong and Taiwan to be controlled by the Chinese mainland.

The Australian has also learned that Ms Lee is an ambassador to the University of Adelaide’s Confucius Institute, one of the centres which the Morrison Government is targeting through its Foreign Relations Bill, and which the US Government is now closing on American campuses on security grounds.

Several SA Liberal MPs contacted The Australian yesterday saying they were “stunned” by Ms Lee’s conduct and unaware of the extent of her pro-Beijing advocacy.

The revelations are challenging for Premier Steven Marshall because Ms Lee serves as assistant minister to the Premier and Liberal MPs say is his preferred candidate to become the next president of the Upper House when a vacancy is set to be filled next month.

While the Premier did not comment his Treasurer Rob Lucas hailed his Upper House colleague as “an outstanding member of parliament and an outstanding representative of communities”.

“South Australians should not be concerned about any association that Jing Lee has with individual groups,” Mr Lucas said.

“We don’t always agree with the political views of these individuals or organisations. You can meet with people, you can attend their functions...it does not mean you share the views of the individual or the organisation.”

Ms Lee yesterday morning was deleting photographs from her Twitter account in which she was lauding the work of the Xinjiang Association, which SA’s 1500-strong Uighur community has accused of appropriating Uighur culture and denying well-documented human rights abuses in East Turkistan.

Jing Lee, centre, poses with the SA Xinjiang Association on the government benches in SA Parliament after giving them a tour of the building in September 2016. Source: Facebook

East Turkistan Australian Association president Nurmuhammad Majid told The Australian he was heartened that the concerns of SA’s Uighurs about the group were finally being heard.

“The Xinjiang Association does not speak for us and does not tell the truth about our suffering, it is nothing more than a front for Beijing,” he said yesterday.

The State Opposition yesterday called on Premier Steven Marshall to explain whether he believed Ms Lee should continue in her current role and to reveal the full extent of her involvement with Adelaide’s Chinese Consulate.

“Jing Lee is Steven Marshall’s assistant minister, and she’s reportedly his pick to be the next Legislative Council President’” Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas told The Australian.

“Steven Marshall needs to explain whether he is comfortable with the facts revealed in The Australian’s report.

“Ms Lee’s publicly stated positions are at odds with the Commonwealth’s position on these matters.”

SA Independent Senator Rex Patrick also seized on The Australian’s revelations to escalate his push for the reduction if not closure of consulate on security grounds.

“It’s no secret that Premier Marshall made it his Government’s business to get as close as possible to China in the hope of securing trade deals,” Senator Patrick said, “but it now appears that the Premier and his Assistant Minister and Liberal Party fundraiser, Jing Lee MLC, may have got rather too close.”

“It is disturbing that Ms Lee has closely associated herself with Chinese United Front organisations that deny the reality of human rights abuse in China, especially the persecution of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Province.”

Senator Patrick also demanded Ms Lee step away from her role with the Confucius Institute.

“It is now reported that the Federal Attorney-General’s Department is now activity seeking the registration of Confucius Institutes under Australian’s Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme,” he said.

“In these circumstances it would be prudent for the Premier to require his Assistant Minister to withdraw from her association with the Institute.

“Further, the Marshall Government must conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that any future dealings with Chinese diplomatic and consular representatives do not in any way facilitate activities that might compromise Australia’s national security.”