Sect leader tells faithful: follow Beijing “in everything”

An Australian-based religious sect leader has told local followers to be guided by Beijing’s policies “in everything we do”.

Xin De Wang with Hobart Lord Mayor Ron Christie.

An Australian-based religious sect leader who heads a group allegedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party has told local followers to be guided by Beijing’s policies “in everything we do”.

Xin De Wang, leader of a wealthy Hobart-based Tantrayana Buddhism sect that claims millions of followers worldwide, recently became president of a new Tasmania branch of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China.

The group, which denies persistent claims by China experts that it is linked to the CCP, is a key force for Chinese influence and was until recently headed nationally by billionaire property developer and political donor Huang Xiangmo.

The Australian has obtained translations of Master Wang’s regular Hobart community radio broadcasts, in which he appears to endorse CCP policies, including “Qiaowu”, which uses expats and overseas “religious resources”, to advance China’s Communist Party influence.

In a broadcast on Hobart FM 96.1 on December 11, 2016, Master Wang extols the virtues of China’s “religious soft power”, quoting a senior CCP official to advance Qiaowu as an “extremely vital task for the party and the nation”.

Master Wang said: “We will hold the latest policies enacted by the motherland as guidance for everything we do. We will hold the teaching of the Great Holy Sakyamuni Buddha as guidance for everything we do. And we will do our utmost to requite the firm embrace of the motherland.”

The Australian does not assert any wrongdoing by Master Wang, but academic Clive Hamilton, who commissioned the translations as part of research on Chinese influence in Tasmania, said any encouragement for Australians to support CCP policies would be concerning.

“Upholding the policies and principles of a foreign government goes against the pledge people make when they become Australian citizens,” Professor Hamilton said.

Due to give a lecture in Hobart next week on Chinese Communist Party influence in Tasmania, Professor Hamilton said the policy of Qiaowu was “a systematic attempt to mobilise Chinese Australians to work in the interests of Beijing”.

Master Wang, a Tasmanian resident for almost 30 years, declined to comment specifically on his radio talks, but denied any links to the CCP.

“All my actions and deeds are guided by the Buddhist spiritual values of compassion, wisdom, peace, harmony, and great love,” he said in a statement posted on his website after inquiries by The Australian.

“I, as an Australian citizen, persist in upholding and protecting Australian values.”

The “sole purpose” of his reunification group was to “promote peace, harmony, unity, and friendship” and “advocate for the development of friendly Australia-China relations”. Claims the group was linked to the CCP were “baseless and false”.

Master Wang, who once claimed to have cured cancer using “invisible energy” and to have spent time in jail in China in the 1980s as the result of trumped-up fraud and spying charges, said he supported the fight against foreign interference.

However, he warned against “racism and McCarthyism while targeting specific ethnic groups”.

Master Wang and his organisations have a vast property portfolio, including a $3 million mansion in Hobart’s Taroona.

His Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia plans to build the southern hemisphere’s largest Buddhist temple and university complex, east of Hobart.

He has appeared at events alongside Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman, Governor Kate Warner, Speaker Sue Hickey and Hobart Lord Mayor Ron Christie.