CANBERRA, Australia: A government lawmaker has accused a China-born Australian billionaire who generously donates to Australian political parties of conspiring to bribe a top United Nations official, threatening to further inflame diplomatic tensions between Australia and China.

Lawmaker Andrew Hastie told Parliament late Tuesday that Chau Chak Wing was the real estate developer referred to in an unsealed US indictment as “CC-3,” which is short for the third co-conspirator. He allegedly arranged to pay $200,000 (Dh367,300) in 2013 to the-then UN General Assembly President John Ashe to attend a conference in China, plus $25,000 for the travel expenses of Ashe’s entourage.

Hastie told Parliament that during a visit to the United States last month, US officials had confirmed to him that the 63-year-old Chinese-Australian dual citizen was CC-3.

In Beijing, Lu Kang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the accusation is “purely fabricated out of thin air and not worth refuting.”

“Some parties and individuals from the Australian side keep stirring up trouble out of nothing and making an issue of China out of their personal concerns about the domestic politics,” Lu said, calling such actions “unreasonable.”

Chau is currently suing two Australian media organisation for defamation for publishing similar accusations.

But Hastie has avoided the same legal threat by making his accusation under parliamentary privilege. The contentious privilege, common in British Commonwealth legislatures, creates a legal immunity that prevents lawmakers from being sued for anything they say in Parliament. The immunity also extends to media that report the lawmakers’ words.

Chau’s lawyer Mark O’Brien described Hastie’s accusation as “slander.” O’Brien told The Australian newspaper that the FBI had given Chau a pseudonym to protect his reputation because he was never a suspect in the case.

O’Brien’s law firm declined to comment to The Associated Press on Wednesday, saying they had no instructions from Chau to make a press statement.

Hastie acknowledged that the Sydney-based property developer had never been indicted by the United States, “for reasons that are best undisclosed.”

Hastie said he made the accusation in the public interest.

“CC-3 is a Chinese-Australian citizen. He has been a very significant donor to both of our major parties. The Australian people deserve the truth,” Hastie said. “It’s time we applied sunlight to our political system and a person who has featured prominently in Australian politics over the past decade.”

China protested Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement in December that Australia will ban foreign interference in its politics — either through espionage or financial donations. The move was motivated largely by Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 US election and China’s growing influence on the global political landscape.

Hastie chairs the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security that is scrutinising that draft legislation.

“In Australia, it is clear that the Chinese Communist Party is working to covertly interfere with our media and universities and also to influence our political processes and public debates,” Hastie said.

Turnbull said he was not forewarned of Hastie’s statement to Parliament. Turnbull had since sought advice from Australian security agencies about the implications of Hastie publicly sharing a confidential briefing about an FBI investigation.

Turnbull said Hastie’s accusations were “not new.” Turnbull declined to comment further because Chau’s defamation action against Fairfax Media goes to trial next month.

China on Tuesday called for “concrete actions” from Australia to improve ties following tensions over Beijing’s anger with recent political moves by Canberra.

Turnbull responded on Wednesday saying: “The Chinese Foreign Ministry is entitled to make such statements as it wishes. But we have a strong relationship” it’s a frank one.”

The alleged go-between Chau and Ashe, US citizen Sheri Yan, was sentenced in 2016 in the US District Court in New York to 20 months in prison. The then 60-year-old had pleaded guilty to a bribery charge. Ashe had died weeks earlier in an accident in his New York home.

The 61-year-old Antiguan diplomat had been waiting to stand trial after pleading not guilty to a tax charge related to the case.
— AP