Yuhu Group tendrils wrap around both parties

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At the AFR:

Labor Senator Sam Dastyari pledged to respect China’s position on the South China Sea at an election campaign press conference he held with a Chinese political donor who had previously paid his legal bills.

He has also urged Australia to drop its opposition to China’s air defence zone in the contested region.

The comments, reported in the Chinese media, conflict with Labor’s official position on the issue which is that Australia should oppose China’s stance and authorise our navy and airforce to conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea.

Experts say the ultimate aim of Chinese soft power is to shift Australians toward’s China’s position on the South China Sea. On Wednesday, outgoing US Ambassador to Australia John Berry warned of growing interference by countries such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and urged Australia to increase transparency around political donations.

Loon Pond hypocrites have been jumping up and down about this despite similar Coalition donations. If it bothers them so much then pass legislation to ban it, from Domainfax last week:

Chinese businessmen with links to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have donated half a million dollars to the Western Australian division of the Liberal Party during the past two years, political disclosures reveal.

All the donors have links to the Chinese government, and the vast bulk of the money was given by companies with no apparent business interests in WA. Ms Bishop, the leading federal member of the party in that state, has singled out each of the three key donors for praise.

Several of the donations have been obscured by the channelling of funds via executives or related companies, or by the donors’ failure to disclose them to the Australian Electoral Commission, in apparent breach of Commonwealth law.

…In 2014-15, billionaire Chau Chak Wing’s Hong Kong Kingson Investment Ltd gave $200,000 to the WA Liberal Party. The donation is listed on the party’s disclosure to the AEC, but the company made no disclosure.

The controversial tycoon has given millions to Liberal, National and Labor parties over several decades. His Kingold conglomerate has expanded from property development to hospitality, education, finance, health, media and culture that extends “from Guangzhou, Beijing and Hong Kong to Sydney and Brisbane in Australia,” according to its website. No business interests in WA are listed.

Meanwhile in 2013-14, Chinese-Australian conglomerate the Yuhu Group gave $280,000 to the WA Liberal division. According to Yuhu’s disclosures to the AEC, $230,000 was donated over three days in August 2013, the last sum coming just a week before the federal election.

…Yuhu has interests in property development, agriculture and infrastructure, but no WA investments. However, its chairman, Huang Xiangmo, is president of a pro-Beijing lobby group whose activities include lobbying against independence movements in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

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Meanwhile, My Yuhu Group is popping up all over, from earlier this week:

The Chinese community will increasingly demand a greater say in Australian public life, after being used as a “cash cow” by both sides of politics then ignored, according to one of the country’s biggest political donors.

Huang Xiangmo, chairman of property developer Yuhu Group, who has given more than $1 million to both sides of politics in Australia since 2012, said Chinese donors should no longer be silent.

“The Australian Chinese community is inexperienced in using political donations to satisfy political requests,” he wrote in an editorial for the state-run Global Times newspaper, which circulates throughout China, on Monday.

“We need to learn … how to have a more efficient combination between political requests and political donations”…

The Australian Financial Review and others have pointed out in recent months how Chinese soft power has permeated Australian think tanks, political parties, the media and schools.

And let’s not forget that this is the same funder behind Bob Carr and China ultrasuperuberbull Professor James Laurenceson, whom you should always disregard.

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Labor is as bad as the Coalition or vice versa. All political donations should be banned.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.