Chinese envoy in Australia blasts ‘cash for influence’ claims
Ambassador says media allegations that donations made by Chinese citizens are aimed at influencing policy are trying to whip up a ‘China panic’
Reports of foreign influence in Australian politics through donations by Chinese citizens are an attempt to whip up a “China panic”, the Chinese ambassador to Australia has said.
Cheng Jingye told an event in Canberra on Thursday that claims of Chinese interference were a groundless attempt to reheat old allegations, akin to “cooking up the overnight cold rice”.
The Four Corners TV programme last week investigated more than A$4m (US$3 million) of donations to the major parties made by an Australian Chinese citizen, Chau Chak Wing , who was a member of a Chinese Communist Party advisory group, the People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Four Corners revealed that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation chief, Duncan Lewis, had become so worried about the influence of foreign donations that he organised meetings with the Coalition and Labor political parties to warn them that some donors could compromise their work.
The executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peter Jennings, described such donations as naked influence buying.