Wong weaponises Liberal ‘Chinese spies’ gaffe in battle for vote

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is telling voters on Chinese social media apps that the Liberals are questioning their loyalty as both sides seek to exploit perceived links to Beijing while continuing to court the diaspora vote.

Key marginal seats in NSW and Victoria will likely be decided on the Chinese Australian vote, including the north Sydney seat of Bennelong, where a man who held a senior role in a Chinese government-linked influence association is leading a volunteer group for the Liberal candidate.

Both claims show the difficulty political parties face as they try to win over Chinese Australian voters with a wide array of priorities, manage Australia’s complex relationship with its largest trading partner, and attack the other side over national security.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong at the prime minister’s address to the National Press Club this week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Wong’s ads were triggered by a remark from Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume on Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Wednesday, after reports in this masthead that an association allegedly linked to the CCP had organised campaigners for a teal and Labor MP, before the latter rejected the arrangement.

“There might be Chinese spies that are, you know, handing out for you,” Hume said to Clare O’Neil, with no evidence for her claim. “But for us, there’s dozens, thousands, hundreds of young people that are out there handing out how-to-vote cards for the Liberal Party because they want a better life.”

In video ads on WeChat and RedNote, social media apps widely used by the Chinese diaspora, Wong says: “Hume accused Chinese volunteers in the federal election of being Chinese spies.

“We’ve seen this before from the Liberal Party. Why is it that the Liberal Party continues to question the loyalty of Chinese Australians?” Wong says in the clip. She goes on to argue that Dutton had “weaponised” Australia’s relationship with China and was only taking a softer stance because he was seeking Chinese Australians’ votes.

Wong then cites a passage in Chinese, which translated into English states: “While mountains and rivers can be changed, one’s nature is difficult to alter.”

Hume was contacted for comment.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Even as the Coalition attacks Labor on national security, it is seeking to win back Chinese voters after the diaspora deserted then-prime minister Scott Morrison en masse for Labor at the 2022 election following his government’s pandemic-era feud with Beijing.

In Bennelong, a must-win seat for both sides, Liberal candidate Scott Yung has distanced himself from Morrison and emphasised his close ties to the Chinese community.

But screenshots obtained by this masthead show Yan Zehua, a former executive vice president of the Australian Association for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, is described as the “leader” of a chat group for volunteers supporting Liberal candidate Scott Yung.

The association is the only organisation that the Australian government has officially listed as being “a foreign government related entity” under the foreign influence transparency scheme.

It was once headed by Huang Xiangmo, the controversial Chinese political donor who was exiled from Australia after security agencies expressed concerns.

Liberal candidate Scott Yung meeting voters in Bennelong on Tuesday. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Yan, who was pictured posing with Yung near an early voting centre late last month, declined to answer questions but said he was no longer vice president of the AAPPRC, which advocates for the democratic island of Taiwan to reunite with the rest of China under Communist control.

He would not say when he stood down from the position, which he is listed as holding as recently as 2023 on press releases of other organisations.

Yan is part of a group on the Chinese social media app called “Scott Campaign Volunteer Group-2”.

The group’s description says the “leader of this group of volunteers is President Yan”, noting he is the president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce who “fully supports Scott in this federal election”.

Yan Zehua with Scott Yung at an Eastwood pre-polling booth.

“Becoming a campaign volunteer not only helps Scott, but also helps like-minded friends improve themselves, enhance their awareness of political participation and sense of community belonging,” the group description states. “Let us gather together to fulfil our mission, jointly support this meaningful campaign, and write our glorious chapter together!”

After Yung and the Liberal Party were contacted for comment, a campaign spokesman said: “Yan is a local constituent who is campaigning against Labor and Jerome Laxale. Scott has no further relationship with Yan. Yan has sometimes supported Labor in the past.”

Yung is not a member of the WeChat group, which numbers 32 people, but his mother, Karen Yueqi, is.

Courting a wary diaspora

After the Liberals’ poor performance with the community in 2022, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton changed his rhetoric.

“I’m pro-China and the relationship that we have with them,” Dutton told 2GB in June last year. “We need to make sure we strengthen the trading relationship [with China] because there are many businesses here who rely on it.”

The Liberal Party’s post-election review in 2022 had found that on average, the two-party-preferred swing to Labor in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry was 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats.

It concluded that, after Chinese voters marked down the Coalition government for criticising China over its handling of COVID-19 and diplomatic ties all but ceased, the Liberal party must make repairing its “relationship with the Chinese community must … a priority during this term of parliament”.

Shannon Ting is voting Greens. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Research published by the University of Technology China Relations Institute found that while the Coalition had “revived more combative rhetoric” recently, the preceding three years had been marked by a “more muted, bipartisan consensus” around China.

“This shift is aimed at reassuring the business community that the Coalition is cognisant and appreciative of trade ties, while also regaining the support of Australian-Chinese voters,” author Elena Collinson concluded.

Labor, for its part, downplayed concerns about Chinese navy ships circumnavigating Australia earlier this year and used measured language to address military tension, such as when a Chinese fighter jet deployed flares near an Australian air force plane in February.

Charlie Chork, a big admirer of John Howard, is voting Liberal. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Charlie Chork, a furniture store owner in Bennelong who emigrated from China 35 years ago, said he believed in the Liberal Party. Yung “got experience from John Howard, and they did quite a good job”, Chork said. “So that’s why I just voted for Scott.”

The party is keen to capitalise on Howard’s good reputation, with signs picturing Yung and the former prime minister together. “I support Scott Yung. He is our future,” they read in English and Chinese.

Labor wants to make it hard for Bennelong Liberals to move on from Morrison. “If Morrison lets you down, Dutton will be worse. Support Scott Yung. Support Dutton,” read Labor Party signs in Mandarin.

Shannon Ting, 25, said there was a “very big gap between the older generation and the younger generation.”

Ting said she voted for the Greens because her primary concerns were climate change and Medicare.

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