by Ganesh Sahathevan
As previously reported:
NSW Premier Chris Minns was also a victim of Zhu Minshen - personal experience should motivate Minns to order investigation into Mark Speakman and underlings' business with Zhu Minshen
Minns must not allow this issue reported in 2017 to stand in the way of an investigation:
NSW Labor rising star’s wife, pro-Beijing staffer in China venture
- The Australian
Senior ALP figures are disturbed that a Chinese-born Sydney man with high-level links to a pro-Beijing lobby group not only works for rising NSW Labor star Chris Minns as a political staffer but also runs a Chinese export business with Mr Minns’s wife.
James Zhou is employed full-time by Mr Minns, the state Labor frontbencher and member for Kogarah who was first elected in 2015. Supporters rate him a future party leader.
Since January last year Mr Zhou has concurrently served as a director of NoBorders Trading, a company that helps others sell Australian goods in China. The business is based in Mr Minns’s electorate and headed by his wife, Anna.
The Labor hierarchy in NSW has become increasingly worried about reports of China’s “soft power” influence in Australian politics, and how their party’s state branch is perceived as connected, more than any other, to local groups aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr Zhou, an Australian citizen, is executive vice-president of the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification in China, a group that supports Taiwan becoming part of the communist-controlled mainland but most controversially backs Beijing’s territorial claims on the South China Sea.
The president of the ACPPRC is Xiangmo Huang, a Chinese citizen and billionaire property developer who, while donating large sums to both Labor and the Coalition since arriving in 2012, appears close to the ALP in NSW.
NSW ALP figures are most alarmed by comments such as those of independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie, who said after an ABC-Fairfax four corners report last week that “China has bought the NSW Labor Party”.
Mr Minns yesterday confirmed his wife was managing director of NoBorders, which she started with Mr Zhou and several others.
He dismissed any suggestion Mr Zhou’s NoBorders directorship was inappropriate for a political staffer he employed, or could be seen as a conflict of interest.
Anna Minns is said to run NoBorders full-time with director “Rick” Bi Jiang, a friend of Mr Zhou, who conceived the business idea with him. Another director is Brent Thomas, a Sydney solicitor and unsuccessful ALP candidate for the federal seat of Hughes.
Mr Minns told The Australian his wife had a record of managing businesses and was entitled to run NoBorders. “She has worked hard to help Australian businesses export their products to the Chinese market,” he said. “James Zhou has been transparent about his involvement with NoBorders Trading and the ACPPRC.”
Mr Minns said he was not personally involved with NoBorders, and the company had no contact with the Chinese government or the CCP. He believed NoBorders had never made party donations.
Mr Zhou told The Australian he could not speak about NoBorders because it was inconvenient, and he could not talk about other matters while working for Mr Minns.
Mr Minns was first introduced to Mr Zhou before the 2015 state election, after Mr Zhou had helped former federal MP Daryl Melham.
In his maiden speech to parliament, Mr Minns singled out “the wonderful James Zhou” for his dedicated work.
The MP also acknowledged Mr Thomas; senator Sam Dastyari, whose political career stalled last year over his links to Chinese political interests; federal Labor Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen, who travelled on a China-funded trip with Mr Minns last year; and Ian McNamara, a Minns friend and staffer in Bill Shorten’s office.
Another thanked was Ernest Wong, the NSW upper house Labor MP who replaced Eric Roozendaal when he abruptly quit politics in 2013. Mr Wong is close to Mr Huang. Mr Roozendaal joined Mr Huang’s North Sydney-based Yuhu Group as deputy chairman and chief executive after vacating his seat.
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