CCP-linked casino high roller attends events with Peter Dutton, MPs

A casino high roller closely linked to the Chinese Communist Party and who has previously beaten serious criminal charges has emerged at a series of political events in the lead-up to the federal election including an event attended by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and a Liberal candidate.

Xie Xiongming, a key associate of controversial billionaire Huang Xiangmo – a political donor now barred from Australia on national security grounds – hosted a Lunar New Year event at a Sydney restaurant on January 6 attended by Liberal candidate for Bennelong Scott Yung.

In a major event to celebrate Lunar New Year, Xie also hosted political figures and business chiefs at a lavish dinner at Sydney Town Hall on January 30 attended by NSW Liberal MP Tim James, highlighting the sway of Xie’s charitable foundation – the Australia China Charitable Foundation.

Xie also appeared in a group of supporters with Dutton and Yung in Sydney on Sunday, as the opposition leader and Liberal candidate for Bennelong sought to build support in the Chinese community to help win the marginal seat held by Labor.

Xie’s re-emergence in the political scene highlights the potential risk for politicians as they seek to win over the Chinese community – and gain donations – by liaising with Chinese community groups.

The Liberal Party moved to distance itself from the casino high roller by saying he was not invited to join the Liberals in their walk on Dixon Street in Sydney’s Chinatown on Sunday, while a spokesman for Dutton said the opposition leader did not know him.

Xie is a former business partner of Huang Xiangmo, a political donor expelled from Australia in 2019 after spy agency ASIO advised the Turnbull government he was seeking to covertly advance Beijing’s aims.

Xie is also a former vice-president of the Huang-chaired Australian Council for the Peaceful Promotion of the Reunification of China, which has been accused in parliament of being a Beijing influence organisation and in 2023 was declared by the attorney-general’s department to be a Chinese government “related entity” under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme laws.

Also at the Lunar New Year event at the Chatswood restaurant on January 6 was Tian Fe, a former top officeholder with the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, and Tommy Jiang, a local Chinese language media entrepreneur who has for years partnered with the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas radio propaganda platform. Another attendee was the Liberal deputy mayor of Willoughby City Council, Angelo Rozos.

The dinner at Sydney Town Hall on Thursday last week included singers, dancers and a speech from Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian as well as a video message from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about Lunar New Year. The prime minister’s office said the footage was not given to the event and appeared to be taken from videos distributed to the media.

“A video message celebrating Chinese New Year was shared with multiple media organisations,” said a spokesman for Albanese.

When Xie appeared on Sunday alongside Dutton and Yung at the street walk in Sydney to gain Chinese community support for the election, he smiled with the pair and other supporters in one photograph and appeared in a group of about a dozen supporters in another.

The revelation of Xie’s presence at the events, including some that were backed by his charity foundation, has sparked concern among political circles due to his complicated past.

A spokesman for Dutton said the opposition leader joined a public street walk in Sydney on Sunday and did not know Xie.

A Liberal Party spokesman for Yung said Xie was not a member of the campaign. “We have confirmed that he is not a part of the campaign or a supporter or a donor, just a member of the public who was there during the Lunar New Year street walk,” the spokesman said.

Asked about Yung’s attendance at the January 6 event, the spokesman said Yung attended because it was a charitable event and had no other association with Xie.

Xie’s re-emergence shows the potential risk for politicians as they seek to win over the Chinese community.

James, who is the Liberal member for the state seat of Willoughby in northern Sydney, attended the event hosted by Xie on January 30 as well as a similar gala on September 15 last year. He said Xie was not a friend or supporter.

NSW Labor MP David Saliba, the member for Fairfield in Sydney’s west, praised Xie in state parliament last November for his “dedicated leadership” of a community association, naming him along with four others. A spokesman for Saliba said he did not recall ever meeting Xie.

This masthead attempted to contact Xie but received no reply.

The NSW Police charged Xie in July 2019 with demanding property worth $10 million from a former gambling associate, with the victim claiming he was threatened with a knife and told he would be killed.

Police investigated and found Xie had the victim’s passport as well as a knife under a bed, but the charges were dropped when a NSW magistrate ruled the case was too weak and ordered the state to pay Xie costs of about $250,000.

An unrelated civil court case in 2020 detailed how Xie had received a $1.5 million loan from a notorious casino junket operator and CCP influence agent Tom “Chinatown” Zhou, who has been jailed in China over corruption offences.

Xie was almost stabbed to death in 2016 as part of a suspected triad Asian crime gang hit.

Crown gambling records show that between 2013 and 2017, Xie was earning hundreds of thousands of dollars as a Chinese junket gambling promoter for Crown Resorts and was also linked to wagering turnover of more than $100 million.

After 2017, however, Xie was subjected to intense media and political scrutiny over his connections to Australian politicians, the Chinese government’s “United Front” influence arm and figures in the world of Chinese organised crime and gambling.

There is no suggestion Xie himself is a criminal.

Many such groups and their members are not politically aligned to Beijing and have purely charitable or community-minded aims, but Beijing’s propaganda and influence agencies have also sought to infiltrate such groups to wield influence and shape and political debate.

There is no suggestion that the organisation that Xie now chairs is part of the CCP’s United Front movement, but several of the key figures at Xie’s recent events have United Front or other CCP ties.

Another guest at the January 6 event in Sydney was disgraced former Labor upper house member, Ernest Wong, who was named as corrupt by the NSW anti-graft agency over his role collecting political donations for the ALP in 2015 from Huang Xiangmo.

Liberal supporter John Caputo, who posted a photograph of the group and Xie on his Facebook page, said he did not know of Xie or his attendance at the gathering in Sydney.

“I don’t even know who this bloke is – I’ve never heard of him,” Caputo said when asked about the photograph.

“He’s part of the crowd. So what.”

Caputo is reported to have encouraged Huang to donate to former prime minister Tony Abbott’s campaign funds and also spoke to Huang about his stalled citizenship application, which ASIO blocked on national security grounds.

The emergence of Xie in recent months has also triggered concern within the Chinese community because his organisation, the Australia China Charitable Foundation, has a similar name to a longstanding not-for-profit group, the Australian Chinese Charity Foundation.

In a sign of that concern, the Australian Chinese Charity Foundation issued a statement last December saying it was “in no way associated” with Xie’s organisation.

The statement was backed by the foundation’s chairman, Michael Tse, and vice-chairman, Annie Tang, but they would not comment on Xie or his group.

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