[For the past two years, the suspected influence by Beijing has been an almost constant source of political and media debate — including intimidation tactics by pro-Beijing students from China on campuses, and politicians from all sides who may have been links to Chinese investment interests.]
By
A. Odysseus Patrick
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The leader of Australia’s
opposition party Bill Shorten holds a photograph of then
foreign minister Julie
Bishop and Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo at
a Parliament session on
June 14, 2017, in Canberra, Australia.
(Micka Tsikas/AP)
|
SYDNEY
— Australian tax authorities
know where to find their man — living in a gilded quasi-exile in Hong Kong.
They also know what they want. That would be
back taxes of 140 million Australian dollars, or about $100 million.
Yet there’s more than just a mega-tax bill at
the center of the case into Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese-born tycoon with a
penchant for living large and spending big in political circles — including
once dropping off a political donation worth about $70,000 in a supermarket
shopping bag.
The investigation is widely seen as a
potential deep dive into pro-Beijing networks and influence-peddling in
Australia, which is struggling to balance its trade dependency with China and
its older military and intelligence-sharing ties with the United States.
It also illustrates an awkward consequence of
the explosion of Chinese capital around the world. Western countries have
embraced the wealthy foreign investors from China but are discovering that many
remain loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and its political agenda.
Beijing’s influence is becoming a
particularly acute concern in Australia, which has a large Chinese population
and whose mineral and natural gas companies have major export markets in China.
For the past two years, the suspected
influence by Beijing has been an almost constant source of political and media
debate — including intimidation tactics by pro-Beijing students from China on
campuses, and politicians from all sides who may have been links to Chinese
investment interests.
“Trying to collect 140 million [Australian
dollars] is an exercise that’s well and good,” said David Chaikin, a former
head of law enforcement and security in the international division of
Australia’s attorney general’s department. “But the national security is worth
more than 140 million.”
A court has frozen Huang’s remaining
Australian assets, and his Australian visa has been canceled. Huang, also known
as Changran Huang, now appears to live in Hong Kong, where he owns a $66 million apartment, according to court
documents.
Having made a fortune in property development
in the Chaoshan area of southern China, Huang moved to Australia in 2013 and
invested in shopping malls, apartment buildings and offices.
He bought a beautiful house in one of
Sydney’s most affluent suburbs, became a benefactor to prominent charities and
educational institutions, and was appointed leader of several groups close to
China’s United Front Work Department, a group with close ties to Beijing’s
leaders that seeks to muzzle any opposition to the one-party state and its
policies, said Alex Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Huang’s wealth and generous political
donations made him a popular guest at fundraisers with senior politicians,
including Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister from 2015 to 2018, Julie Bishop,
the foreign minister from 2013 to 2018, and Bill Shorten, the former leader of
the opposition Labor Party. Shorten attended Huang’s daughter’s wedding in
Sydney three years ago.
Huang’s high profile and access to powerful
people attracted the interest of the intelligence services, too.
In 2016, a Labor Party politician, Sam
Dastyari, warned Huang that his phone was likely being monitored by government
agencies, a warning that ended Dastyari’s political career when the call was
revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald a year later.
Huang’s involvement with pro-Beijing
organizations and contact with senior politicians has fed speculation that he
was pushing policies favored by the Chinese government.
Even Turnbull, when he was prime minister,
suggested that Huang’s donations had led Dastyari to side with China in its
international disputes over the South China Sea, where China’s claims of full
sovereignty are strongly opposed by the United States and its allies.
Huang could not be reached for comment. His
lawyer, wife and son did not respond to email requests seeking comment.
In 2015, Huang personally delivered 100,000
Australian dollars — worth about $70,000 and held together with rubber bands —
to the Labor Party head office in the state of New South Wales.
Political contributions by property
developers are banned in the state. When a legal inquiry in Sydney last month
revealed the donation, the party’s top administrative official was forced to
resign.
Huang refused to give evidence in the
inquiry, and a donation-disclosure filing asserted that the money came from 10
employees at a Sydney Chinese restaurant where he had dined with Shorten and
other Labor politicians.
When investigators ordered one of Huang’s
executives, Leo Liao, to answer questions in person about the money, he
committed suicide. In a note to his wife and daughter, Liao said the summons
triggered memories of his father being interrogated in China.
“Eventually he ended in jail,” he wrote. “It
was petrifying.”
Australian officials are apparently
collecting information about Huang’s wider network in Australia.
Ross Babbage, a former head of strategic
analysis at the Office of National Assessments, an Australian intelligence
agency, said that “there may be an interest in official circles in using such a
prosecution to uncloak some of the realities” of the Chinese Communist Party
reach in Australia.
Reports submitted by tax officials to the
court said that Huang had declared less than $35,000 in assets outside
Australia and claimed earnings of about $1 million
from 2012 to 2015. The tax office claims he generated about $120 million in income over the same period.
Huang’s lawyer has denied in court that his
client owes the money.
The government canceled Huang’s visa the day
after he left for China in December 2018. Huang’s wife, Jiefang, left Australia
on Sept. 11, the day she and her husband were hit with the tax bill, according
to government records.
Five days later a federal court froze the
Huangs’ assets in Australia up to the value of $100 million, even though the
judge, Anna Katzmann, said that it was unclear whether there was that much
money left and that the debt couldn’t be enforced in Hong Kong.
“The amount of the tax liability is
considerable and there is a real danger that, without the freezing orders,
assets will be removed from Australia or otherwise dissipated,” Katzmann wrote
in the judgment.
Huang has severed ties with his Australian business,
Yuhu Group, which has extensive real estate assets and is run by his son,
Jimmy. Yuhu officials did not respond to a request for comment.
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