Belt and Road advisory board was stacked with people linked to CCP
The board of an Australian and Victorian government funded Belt and Road foundation was stacked with advisers with high-profile links to the Chinese Communist Party.
The list of advisers, which includes members of China's Treasury, spearheaded lobbying of the Victorian government before it became the only Australian state to sign up to the multinational infrastructure initiative.
Premier Daniel Andrews signed on to the package in 2018 and in May declared it "was more important than ever" to stimulate Victoria's post-coronavirus economy.
The move, which will allow for Chinese investment in Victoria and for Victorian companies to participate in Chinese government projects overseas, has angered federal cabinet ministers who hold national security concerns over the deal as China becomes increasingly assertive in its pandemic diplomacy.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday accused Mr Andrews of a lack of transparency and of using his relationship with China to advance his own political agenda.
"I would have thought sunlight is a good thing here, but for whatever reason he decides to conduct all of this business in secret, and I just don't think it is in the national interest," he said.
The board members listed on a now-removed website include corporate governance expert Li Wei An, who receives a special government allowance from the Chinese State Council, Liu Jian Xing, a director at China's National Development and Reform Commission, and Shuaihua Wallace Cheng, an economist at the Shanghai Municipal Government Development Research Centre. It is common for academics and high-profile business people in China to be associated with the government.
The organisation received $36,850 to provide advice to the Victorian government in 2017-18 and 2019-20 and $20,000 from the federal government in 2016.
The 33-year-old founder of the Victorian-based Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative, Jean Dong, declined a request for an interview. Ms Dong and her fellow director Peter Collins, a genetic variation specialist and science film festival organiser, also recruited Australian corporate heavyweights including BHP Director Malcolm Broomhead, former trade minister Andrew Robb and Paul Cooper, the Chairman of Norman Disney and Young to the board.
Ms Dong, then aged in her 20s, said she played key roles in establishing relations between Tasmania and China and witnessed the signing of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement after leaving her role as a state media news anchor in China.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/belt-and-road-advisory-board-was-stacked...