Former Minister Testifies: Worked With Businessman While Unaware of Alleged CCP Ties

Former Australian Education Minister Alan Tudge speaks at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

Former Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said he expected positive media coverage when he facilitated a donation to a hospital from a businessman who has been accused of attempting to use the money to advance objectives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Vietnam-born Di Sanh Duong, 67, also known as Sunny Duong, is facing a Victoria County Court trial after Australian Federal Police (AFP) alleged he was preparing for an act of foreign interference by trying to influence Mr. Tudge, a Liberal frontbencher in the Morrison government.

Mr. Duong has pleaded not guilty.

According to the prosecutor, Mr. Duong, a former Liberal party member, was the president of the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. He also held a senior role in the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, which is affiliated with the CCP’s overseas influence arm, the United Front Work Department.

In 2020, after soliciting over $37,000 (US$24,000) from Melbourne’s Chinese community, Mr. Duong reached out to Mr. Tudge’s office, saying he wanted to donate the money to help frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations president Sunny Duong speaks to media following a tour of the intensive care unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne on June 2, 2020. (AAP Image/James Ross)

Mr. Tudge suggested that he would organise an event where Mr. Duong could donate to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

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“I suggested to him we would probably get media along for it, that I would coordinate that and it would be a really positive story for the Australian-Chinese community,” Mr. Tudge told the court on Nov. 20.

“I was certainly hoping to get TV coverage.”

Mr. Tudge said he had done background checks on Mr. Duong but found no red flags.

Later, at an event attended by the media, Mr. Duong handed a novelty cheque to the hospital’s CEO and the former minister, who posted the media coverage to his social media accounts.

Around three months after the event, Mr. Duong contacted Mr. Tudge’s office to ask for a travel exemption to Vietnam for one of his friends. The former minister said his staff followed up with the request without his knowledge and he only knew about it from the police months later.

Links With United Front

Prosecutors accused Mr. Duong of having secret links to the United Front Work Department agency of the CCP, a program of influence with extensive activities within China and overseas.

Inside China, the United Front is involved with suppressing ethnic minorities and religious groups.

Outside of China, the department is responsible for shaping international public opinion of the CCP regime, monitoring and reporting on the activities of the Chinese diaspora, and serving as access points for foreign technology transfer, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Crown prosecutor Patrick Doyle KC last week said Mr. Duong attended United Front’s conferences in China and maintained regular contacts with CCP officials and Chinese intelligence officers, including around the time the donation took place.

He alleged that Mr. Duong’s decision to involve Mr. Tudge in the COVID-19 financial aid effort and cultivate a relationship with him was part of an attempt to leverage the broader aims and goals of the CCP.

“People with power and influence will be the most important targets of the United Front System. People like politicians,” Mr. Doyle told the court.

He added that this was “not really a case about espionage.”

“It’s not really a case about spies as such. It’s a case about a much more subtle form of interference. It’s about influence.”

Prosecutors now need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Duong was planning to influence the former minister.

The charges came after the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, led by the domestic spy agency ASIO and the AFP, conducted a year-long investigation into Mr. Duong’s activities.

However, Mr. Duong’s barrister Peter Chadwick KC denied the accusations, arguing the hospital donation was not a covert attempt to influence Mr. Tudge and that his client was solely concerned about local community issues.

For the offence to be proved, prosecutors will need to convince the jury beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Duong was plotting to try to influence Mr. Tudge.

What Does The Law Say?

Mr. Duong was the first person to be charged under Australia’s foreign interference law, which came into effect in 2018 under the Turnbull government, according to AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney.

The National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill introduces criminal offences related to treason, espionage, foreign interference, and interfering with political rights and duties, among others.

A person will be accused of foreign interference offence if they engage in conduct on behalf of a foreign principal to “influence a political or governmental process.”

The accused would also engage in covert or deceptive conduct, make a threat to cause serious harm or make a demand with menaces.

The maximum penalty applicable is 20 years imprisonment.