Convicted CCP Figure Could Go to Jail for Attempting to Influence Minister

Former Liberal Party candidate Di Sanh Duong leaves the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 20, 2023. AAP Image/Joel Carrett

Di Sanh “Sunny” Duong—the first person to be convicted of planning to commit an act of foreign interference in Australia—is fighting to avoid jail.

His lawyers have argued that his offending was “unsophisticated” and argued he would be unlikely to re-offend now that he has been “outed.”

Mr. Duong, 68, who also goes by the Chinese name of Yang Yisheng, was convicted in December of last year and faces up to 10 years in jail.

But at his sentencing hearing this week, his lawyer David Carolan pleaded for a non-custodial sentence. His client had arrived in Australia from Vietnam as a refugee aboard a boat and had been involved in charitable work and the Chinese community in Melbourne for much of his life, he said.

“His community work is very very impressive. He’s a refugee who came here with nothing and built a life.”

First to Be Convicted Under 2018 Law

Mr. Duong was found guilty by a jury after a three-week trial, making him the first person to be tried and convicted since foreign interference laws were passed in 2018.

The trial heard evidence that he was in regular contact with Beijing’s Ministry of State Security and sought to influence federal Education Minister Alan Tudge because he believed Mr. Tudge could be a future prime minister.

Prosecutor Patrick Doyle SC told the court Mr. Duong concealed his CCP links from senior Liberal Party members by boasting of his long-standing membership of, and loyalty to, the Liberal Party.

He was a Liberal Party member since the 1980s and ran for the party in the state seat of Richmond in 1996, but quit in 2020 shortly after his arrest.

But Mr. Doyle said he was actually a “practiced operative” of the United Front Work Department, a global program that aims to advance the CCP’s goals in foreign countries by influencing people in positions of power.

‘Beijing Will Know What I’m Doing’

In an intercepted phone call played at his trial, Mr. Duong told associates that Mr. Tudge could be a “patron or supporter for us” and to speak on issues “for us Chinese.” He also admitted that he met with CCP leaders when he travelled to China.

In another call, he was recorded boasting: “When I do things, it never gets reported in the newspaper but Beijing will know what I’m doing.”

The case centred on a $37,450 (US$26,000) donation Mr. Duong made to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in June 2020. He presented a novelty cheque and stood next to Mr. Tudge as it was handed to the hospital’s CEO at an event organised by the minister’s office.

Mr. Duong said the funds were to help frontline healthcare workers and to counter anti-Chinese sentiment during the pandemic.

Mr. Dole said this conduct was “particularly insidious” and difficult to detect, and that Mr. Duong had used his charity work and position as a Chinese community leader to gain access to the upper ranks of the Liberal Party.

Mr. Duong remains on bail and will be sentenced on Feb. 29.