We already knew that Chinese-owned companies were quietly mobilising their workers to scarf up Australian medical supplies to ship off to China through January and February. Right when the Xi Plague was peaking there – and Beijing was lying to the rest of the world that anything much was really happening.
Given the intrusion of the communist state into all ‘private’ businesses in China, it’s a given that the regime was at least tacitly implicated.
Regional supermarkets were also being raided by highly-organised busloads of ‘panic-buyers’. At the time, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton hinted that “criminal gangs” were involved.
As it turns out, both are true.
A former Chinese military officer worked with Chinese Communist Party agencies and a group with links to organised crime to export tonnes of Australian medical supplies to Wuhan at the height of the coronavirus epidemic there.
The former officer, Kuang Yuanping, is now planning to bring medical equipment to Australia given the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in China appears to have passed[…]
Sydney-based Mr Kuang is a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army who runs a number of Chinese Communist Party-backed organisations in Sydney and Melbourne. These organisations include some that are loosely backed by China’s soft-power agency, the United Front Work Department, which is charged with building influence for the CCP overseas and countering its critics.
One of the groups, the Hubei Association, was until recently run by former Chinese-Australia organised crime suspect, Tom “Mr Chinatown” Zhou.
This was no small-scale operation.
In February Mr Kuang helped coordinate two air lifts of medical supplies from Australia to Wuhan. The consignments included 35,000 sets of protective medical suits, 200,000 pairs of gloves and 10 tonnes of disinfectant. The goods went to hospitals and medical centres in Wuhan and five other cities at the epicentre of the crisis.[…]
Party officials in Hubei authorised his Australian company, Huaren Group, to urgently supply China with medical supplies including personal protective clothing for medical workers. Such internal approvals would normally take months or longer.
This is the unmitigated gall of the Xi regime: first they lie and infect the world, then they quietly pillage soon-to-be urgently-needed medical equipment. Finally, they have the front to try and pass themselves off as a benevolent global citizen.
Mr Kuang is also operating to further Beijing’s strategic aims and reputation, including building political influence in Australia. Statements issued by Mr Kuang or his backers to Chinese language media outlets reveal that since February, he has sought to merge several United Front groups to form a mega “alliance” able to draw on “support from the Chinese embassy in Canberra”.
Mr Kuang also appears to be seeking to profit by exporting Australian meat and produce to China.
BFD readers will also be aware of New Zealand meat prices soaring in the early months of 2020. Industry rumours point to massive Chinese buying as the reason.
The export of goods in demand due to the virus has sparked concern from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and other ministers[…]
The involvement of Chinese government agencies in directing humanitarian or profit motivated activities in Australia is almost certain to draw scrutiny from Australian security agencies.
While there is no doubt that local Chinese communities are sincerely attempting to help out their host countries, it is also obvious that Beijing is blatantly trying to turn that goodwill to propaganda purposes – undermining the philanthropy of Chinese Australians and New Zealanders.
Swinburne University China specialist Professor John Fitzgerald […says] “What’s galling is China’s state propaganda arm repeating nonsense on our local Chinese-language radio stations, claiming the Australian government is playing politics while Xi Jinping is out to save the world. That’s really unhelpful for social cohesion in Australia. It has to stop”.
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