https://amp.theage.com.au/politics/fede ... T876IfyNxAA Melbourne man charged with preparing an act of foreign interference within Australia is still a fee-paying member of the Liberal Party.
Di Sanh Duong, president of the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations and deputy chairman of the Museum of Chinese Australian History in Melbourne, on Thursday became the first person charged under Australia's landmark foreign interference laws.
Victorian Liberal leader Michael O’Brien on Friday wrote to the party's state director Sam McQuestin asking for the issue of Mr Duong’s membership to be on the agenda of the next meeting of the party’s administrative committee.
The former Liberal candidate, also known as Sunny Duong, had not been returning associates' phone calls for a few months leading up to the Australian Federal Police raiding a number of Melbourne properties connected to him on October 16.
Mr Duong, 65, had complained to one associate that he had been stopped by authorities when returning from an overseas trip and had his computer and phone searched.
He is suspected to have links with Beijing's overseas influence arm, the United Front Work Department.
Security sources have confirmed that the joint investigation by counter-espionage agency ASIO and the AFP at least partly focuses on Mr Duong's alleged activities in trying to influence figures in the Liberal Party's Victorian branch. The evidence won't suggest alleged plans to engage in foreign interference were advanced, but only preparatory.
The AFP alleges Mr Duong has a connection to a foreign intelligence agency, but has not named which country.
Mr Duong has been connected to the Liberal Party since the 1980s and ran as a candidate for the party in the state seat of Richmond in 1996.
One Liberal source described him as a "wallflower", while others played down his influence, saying he was never a significant figure.
Sunny Duong lol
