China calls in Australia envoy over Canberra’s allegation of Chinese meddling

China has reportedly summoned Australia’s ambassador to protest Canberra’s accusation that Beijing has sought to meddle in Australian internal politics.

Reports said on Thursday that Jan Adams, who has been Australia’s top diplomat in Beijing since 2016, had been called in to the Chinese Ministry for Foreign Affairs last Friday, three days after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull expressed his growing concerns over the alleged “Chinese influence” in Canberra’s domestic politics.

The Australian premier claimed at the time that foreign powers, China included, were making “unprecedented and increasingly sophisticated attempts to influence the political process” in Australia. He added that he would ban foreign political donations, including from China, as part of a crackdown aimed at preventing external interference in his country’s domestic politics.

Australia and neighboring New Zealand are among nearly a third of states worldwide that do not block foreign donations to domestic political parties. According to Turnbull, Australia’s new laws, which in part follow the US Foreign Agents Registration Act, would criminalize foreign interference and demand the registration of lobbyists working for nation states.

On Tuesday, Australia’s Labor Senator Sam Dastyari announced that he would be stepping down from the Senate prior to the 2018 parliamentary year after weeks of controversy over his purported links and interactions with Chinese donors, particularly with Huang Xiangmo, a donor with alleged links to China’s ruling communist party.

Back in June, Fairfax Media and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that a concerted campaign had purportedly been mounted by China to “infiltrate” Australian politics in an attempt to promote Chinese interests.

Last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, however, said that Turnbull’s accusations were full of prejudice against China, were baseless, and poisoned the atmosphere of the two countries’ bilateral ties.

Turnbull’s comments were lambasted even at home as Australia’s opposition Labor Party described them as showing “anti-China” bias that could jeopardize Canberra-Beijing trade relations.

The Australian premier, however, rejected that his remarks had indulged any anti-Chinese rhetoric.

China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, purchased some $70 billion worth of Australian goods and services last year. However, bilateral relations have become strained in the past two weeks following Turnbull’s remarks.

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