1 week Ago By Paul Sakkal, Cindy Yin
Volunteers wearing Monique Ryan campaign t-shirts have been captured on video saying a community organisation, which has historical links to the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign influence operation, told them to vote for the teal MP. In the footage, a woman says the instruction came from Ji Jianmin, who is the president of the Hubei Association, an organisation representing people from the Chinese province that has also been accused of working with the United Front Department, a Chinese government agency that advances CCP interests internationally. Australia had a major reckoning with allegations of Chinese influence operations late last decade, prompting Malcolm Turnbull’s government to introduce foreign interference laws and making MPs more cautious about working with diaspora groups linked to foreign powers.
Ji’s alleged endorsement of Ryan and the MP’s decision to attend an event hosted by another one of his organisations earlier this month raise questions about Beijing’s ongoing interest in Australia’s election after Liberal figures, including Peter Dutton, were forced to distance themselves from a CCP-linked figure they were photographed with in February . In a video taken by Tharini Rouwette, who runs a group called COMPELL that advances multiculturalism in Australian politics, and uploaded to a Kooyong community Facebook group on April 22, two people wearing Ryan t-shirts claim Ji told them to vote for Ryan. “The Hubei Association President Ji Jianmin, how should I say this, he required us Chinese diaspora to support her,” says one of the Ryan volunteers, whose name is given only as Jessica.
A volunteer for Monique Ryan, who said she had been told to vote for Ryan by a Chinese organisation linked to the CCP. Another volunteer in the video, Stephen, adds: “Monique [Ryan] is an independent federal MP, her policies are quite suited to the needs of us Chinese diaspora. It feels like she can give a voice to us, so we want to support her.
” The video has since been deleted from Facebook but remains on TikTok. In a statement, Ryan’s spokeswoman confirmed one of the volunteers signed up to campaign against Liberal opponent Amelia Hamer after an April 21 dinner organised by another group Ji leads, but distanced the MP from Ji. “On April 21st, Monique attended a community dinner hosted by the Hubei Chamber of Commerce, which Mr Ji Jianmin also attended,” the spokeswoman said.
“Following the event, some attendees, including Stephen – one of the people in the video – signed up to volunteer. Monique has had no interaction with Stephen beyond being present at that dinner.” “Monique has had no interaction with Stephen beyond being present at that dinner.
Monique cannot confirm whether Jessica attended the dinner, and, to her knowledge, she has not met her.” “They are not personally known to her. She is aware that they have handed out flyers at a pre-poll location in Kew but has no knowledge of any further involvement in her campaign.
” Ji leads the Hubei Chamber of Commerce and the Australian Hubei Association, both of which are for people from the central Chinese province home to almost 60 million residents and the seventh-largest economy in the country. He also oversees the Huaxing Arts Group, which is a performing arts organisation. The groups were formerly run by Tom “Mr Chinatown” Zhou, who was arrested and extradited to China in 2020 over suspected money laundering and corruption following an investigation by this masthead into Crown casino junkets.
Zhou’s legal status is unclear, but the Herald Sun reported in 2023 that he was unlikely to be released for five years. A 2018 submission by researchers Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske to a federal parliamentary inquiry cites the Australian Hubei Association as among “United Front-linked business groups”. “Hometown associations draw together Chinese-Australians on the basis of their city or province of birth with the aim of mutual aid and social networking,” the report reads.
“Not all of them are United Front organisations, although the larger ones are certainly of interest to the embassy and consulates.” It is common for groups representing the Chinese diaspora or doing business with the country to have some ties to the nation’s government because of how embedded the state is in society, but the United Front goes further. President Xi Jinping said in 2015 that the “United Front .
.. is an important magic weapon for strengthening the party’s ruling position .
.. and an important magic weapon for realising the ‘China Dream of the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation’.
” The Huaxing group writes biannual reports to United Front and includes its database of Australian political figures and community groups, according to research published in 2020 by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Ji was contacted for comment and acknowledged he had seen written questions from this masthead about his alleged endorsement of Ryan but did not respond to them. Ryan acknowledged repeated interactions with Ji but said she had never met him privately or been lobbied by him about policy.
There is no suggestion she sought the group’s endorsement. “Mr Ji has attended a small number of public campaign events and community forums, where he, along with many others, has appeared in group photos,” Ryan’s spokeswoman said. “Monique has not met with Mr Ji privately, he has never lobbied her on any policy matters .
.. Any contact between Monique and Mr Ji has been incidental and limited to public events attended by large numbers of people, including the Hubei Chamber of Commerce dinner on April 21st.
” Swinburne University emeritus professor John Fitzgerald, a historian of China, said the business associations were generous backers of charitable and cultural activities in support of Beijing’s soft power operations in Australia. Fitzgerald said of the video: “The volunteer’s transparency is admirable. If what she says is true, she was told by the director of one or two community associations linked to the communist party and government of China to encourage Chinese-Australian voters to support a preferred candidate, Monique Ryan.
” “Whether this direction falls under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme is not for me to say but that scheme places strict and specific obligations on relevant organisations during voting periods.” The Turnbull government in 2018 passed world-leading laws against foreign governments meddling in Australian affairs. While the government did not name China at the time, Turnbull said in 2023 that the “key purpose” of a foreign interest register was to disclose the work of the United Front Work Department in Australia.
“The most active state and political party seeking to influence public affairs in Australia is China ...
but they don’t seem to appear on the register,” he told a parliamentary inquiry in February 2023. A report from last week in local Chinese language media outlet Huawen Horizon cited Ji as the president of the Hubei associations and said he had advocated to “deepen cooperation in business, culture and other fields”. He also said, “Chinese have been active in participating in politics, business investment, and cultural communication, which has not only enhanced their own social influence, but also injected new vitality into Australia’s prosperity,” according to the report.
In a parliamentary speech from June, Ryan said delays in subclass 888 visas - known as “golden ticket” visas that require $5 million of investment in Australia – were making it hard for some of the one-in-five Kooyong residents of Chinese heritage to do business. “I fear that our Chinese-Australian communities are under threat from a system which is slow, complex and poorly designed and which breaks and holds families apart,” she said. The teal MP who defeated former treasurer Josh Frydenberg said during the 2022 election campaign that “China is our biggest trade partner .
.. [and] should be treated with respect and sensitivity not with macho, breast-beating belligerence.
” Ryan’s office did not respond to a question about whether she had ever made a public comment critical of China’s human rights record. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .
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