Labor's Jason Li bids to win over Asian voters in Australian election

Star Labor recruit Jason Yat-Sen Li, a businessman, lawyer and high-profile figure in the Chinese community, is in the fight of his life for the seat of Bennelong.

Held for the conservative opposition by former tennis player John Alexander with a 3.1 per cent margin, Bennelong will be among the most fiercely contested electorates in tomorrow's Australian federal election.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called Li in Beijing and invited him - in Putonghua - to return to Australia to join the campaign after the Labor candidate Jeff Salvestro-Martin was dropped for being implicated in a corruption inquiry.

The Sydney electorate has been something of a bellwether; it was lost by prime minister John Howard when he was swept from power by Rudd's forces in 2007.

Howard's usurper, the former broadcaster Maxine McKew, suffered the same fate at Alexander's hands in 2010 when Labor came perilously close to losing government after three short years.

The conservative coalition is now throwing everything at retaining the seat. When Li turned up to a New South Wales Business Chamber event on August 19, he found he was obliged to speak after opposition leader Tony Abbott, Liberal lawmaker Bruce Billson and Alexander himself.