Australian Senator Slammed for Surveillance Tip-Off to Chinese Billionaire

Australian Labor Party's Senator Sam Dastyari speaks to the media in Sydney on Sept. 6, 2016, to make a public apology after asking a company with links to the Chinese Government to pay a US $1,273 bill incurred by his office. Later Dastyari quit the Labor frontbench after admitting Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo paid a legal bill for him. Dastyari is now in trouble after a report said that he told Huang that his phone was probably being tapped by security agencies. William West/AFP/Getty Images

The loyalty of an Australian senator has been publicly questioned by the country’s prime minister after media reports revealed he warned a Beijing-linked benefactor that his phone was likely being tapped by intelligence services.

Australia’s Fairfax Media reported on Nov. 29 that Sam Dastyari, a senator with the opposition Australian Labor Party, told wealthy Chinese Communist Party-linked political donor Huang Xiangmo that he was likely to be under surveillance, by government agencies, including those of the U.S. government.