Prominent Australian opposition Senator Sam Dastyari yesterday said he would resign from parliament after a series of allegations emerged about his links with Chinese-aligned interests in Australia.
Relations between Australia and China have become strained since Canberra announced last week it would ban foreign political donations as part of a crackdown aimed at preventing external influence in domestic politics.
In announcing the ban, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull singled out China, citing “disturbing reports about Chinese influence.”
Photo: EPA
China hit back, with the People’s Daily describing media reports about Chinese interference as “racist” and “paranoid.”
Dastyari, widely viewed as a rising star of the center-left Labour opposition party, has been under fire since domestic media reported he had in 2015 sought to encourage the party’s deputy leader not to meet a Chinese pro-democracy advocate opposed to Beijing’s rule in Hong Kong.
“Today, after much reflection, I’ve decided that the best service I can render to the federal parliamentary Labour Party is to not return to the Senate in 2018,” Dastyari told reporters.
The latest allegations came after Turnbull on Monday told Australian Broadcasting Corp that Dastyari had warned Chinese political donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨) that his telephone might be tapped.
Dastyari had already quit some senior Labour positions after a tape surfaced of him appearing to endorse China’s contentious expansion in disputed areas of the South China Sea, against his party’s platform. The tape showed him standing next to Huang.
Turnbull accused Labor of “failing to put Australia first,” rhetoric that analysts said could widen divisions between Canberra and Beijing.
“The row has erupted and it has claimed a political scalp,” said Euan Graham, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. “China could retaliate through non-official sanctions such as reduced tourist numbers or through buying of goods elsewhere.”
China last year bought A$93 billion (US$70.5 billion) of Australian goods and services, easily making it the nation’s biggest trading partner.
However, growing trade ties are only one side of a delicate balancing act for Australia, whose unshakable security relationship with the US has limited how cozy it gets with China.
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