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April 1, 2025
Tuesday 1 April 2025
Paul Garvey
The Australian
Anthony Albanese has “serious” questions to answer, the opposition says, after a senior office-bearer for a Chinese organisation red-flagged as an agent of foreign influence attended one of the Labor leader’s fundraisers.
The Australian on Sunday revealed that Sydney restaurateur James Chan – who had previously denied any link to the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China – had been listed as a vice-president of the organisation from 2016 to as recently as November last year.
The ACPPRC in 2023 became the first group to be declared a foreign government-related entity under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. The ACPPRD has been described as an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s Untied Front department, which seeks to cultivate influence on, and proximity to, international governments.
Mr Chan reportedly attended an intimate $2000-a-head fundraising event for Labor with Mr Albanese at the Cabra-Vale Diggers in southwestern Sydney in early March.
On top of the revelations about Mr Chan’s vice-presidency of the ACPPRC, The Australian also uncovered a photograph of Mr Chan at a meeting of the organisation headed by controversial billionaire Huang Xiangmo.
That meeting – held before Australian security agencies barred Mr Huang from re-entering the country – passed a motion condemning the Hong Kong independence movement and called for the overseas Chinese community to “fight” against Hong Kong independence.Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Prime Minister “has some serious questions to answer”. “He has to explain if it is indeed the case that he and the Labor Party have accepted a donation from someone who is linked to an organisation that’s affiliated with the United Front Work Department,” Senator Paterson told Sky News.
“The United Front Work Department is the principal overseas outreach arm of the Chinese Communist Party that seeks to spread the Communist Party’s message.
“Xi Jinping has described the United Front Work Department as China’s ‘magic weapon’. And the Australia Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China is one of those key United Front bodies that operates in Australia.”
Mr Huang was the Chinese billionaire whose ties to Labor senator Sam Dastyari ultimately brought about the end of Mr Dastyari’s political career. The Labor senator resigned after it emerged he had warned Mr Huang that his phone was most likely being tapped by Australian security agencies.
Mr Paterson said Mr Albanese and Labor should have been aware by now of the risks of associating with individuals and entities linked to United Front.
“People might have got away with making mistakes like this five or even 10 years ago in a more innocent or naive time, but we have learnt a lot since then and there should be much better processes in place, particularly for the Prime Minister, to vet people that are paying money to attend a function that he attended,” he said.
“Now, this is not just some random interaction in the street; if it is indeed true, this is someone who paid money to sit with the Prime Minister at a small, intimate fundraising gathering, allegedly. And so I think the Prime Minister really does need to front up and explain how this happened, if it did indeed happen.”
Mr Chan has long been a significant figure in Sydney’s Chinese community and in 2014 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the Chinese community of Greater Western Sydney.
He was the owner of long-running Chinese restaurant Chan’s Canton Village in Liverpool, which closed last year when Mr Chan chose to retire after more than 40 years.