Benelon's liberal candidate Scott Yung appears to be estranged from the party as paid ads tell the Chinese-Australian diaspora that he did not "blindly comply" with the instructions, highlighting his previous criticism of Scott Morrison.
A Chinese ad was launched on the Australian Financial News WeChat page on Thursday morning, titled “He once publicly criticized his party leader” and emphasized Yung’s “independent thinking.”
The ad was released at 6 a.m., coincided with reports in Australian financial commentary, where Yung allegedly told voters at the polling station that “leaders won’t be there forever”. Young told the media that the report was a "lazy smear attempt" and that he "strongly supported" Peter Dutton.
Dutton later made a report saying that Yang had "denied these rumors."
WeChat Advertising - For China, which may play an influential role in Saturday’s elections - the narrow range of the Australian is authorized by Warren Wang, who appears to be a member of the Yung team and has authorized other materials to facilitate his campaign.
The Guardian Australia contacted Yung's campaign to confirm that the ad was authorized by them and the league's campaign, but received no comments.
It does not mention Datun, but it highlights Yang's previous criticism of the party's treatment of Chinese diaspora and describes him as someone who will not blindly follow the orders.
"Although Scott is a member of the liberals, he did not follow blindly," the ad said. "Instead, he has independent thinking and he will serve the country in accordance with the national interests.
“For example, when liberals lost the 2022 federal election and lost the 2022 New South Wales election, Scott wrote to the Sydney Herald Morning based on the fact that it was a comprehensive view, criticizing former Prime Minister Scott Morrison for causing damage to Chinese Australian communities.”
The 2022 review of the Liberal Party’s election failure has raised serious concerns about how the party interacts with the community and the impact of the Morrison administration’s attitude towards China’s Hawkesh.
Nearly one-third of Bennelong’s residents are of Chinese descent. Labour member Jerome Laxale has a seat of just 0.1%.
In recent days, a media outlet accused independent MP Monique Ryan of volunteers being directed to vote for her by a group whose historical ties to China’s foreign influence departments. The group is also linked to the campaign of Clare O'Neil, the Labour frontman.
Ryan and O'Neil denied any misconduct, but the Election Integrity Assurance Working Group is considering the matter, which is under the responsibility of the Election Commission, the Federal Police and the domestic intelligence agency.
The allegations have sparked strong criticism from liberal front office officials, including Jane Hume, who suggest that "Chinese spies" may be distributing how to vote for O'Neal.
However, criticism of the former class seat of liberalism has not been well received by some of WeChat’s Chinese-Australian communities, who believe it is unfair and call for a boycott of Victoria’s freedom candidates.
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In response to Hume's comment, a WeChat user said: "How can liberals say such things? Everyone should keep liberals going." Green vote refers to the House voting card.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong also mentioned Hume’s comments in a one-minute video uploaded to WeChat on Thursday afternoon, where she spoke briefly in Chinese.
"Liberal Senator Jane Hume accused Chinese Australians of volunteering to participate in Chinese spies in the federal elections," Wong said in the video. "We have seen this from the Liberal Party before. Why does the Liberal Party continue to question the loyalty of Chinese Australians?"
The Liberal Party’s review of the 2022 election found that the swing rate of the two parties’ top 15 seats of Chinese descent was 6.6%, while the rest was 3.7%.
Thursday's WeChat ad acknowledged that the Liberal Party's relationship with China-Australian diaspora had been tense and positioned it as someone who could fix it.
"Scott understands the difficulties and needs of China-Australians and is lucky that he grew up in Australia's multicultural culture," the campaign ad said.
“As he continues to contribute to Australia’s prosperity and development, he also wants to make some contributions to the bridging of the Chinese-Australian community and the Australian community and express the China-Australian voice.”
Elsewhere, Yung faces ongoing doubts during the 2019 state elections, related to the freedom of Chinese celebrities and the free work provided by public relations agencies. Yung said the work does not need to be disclosed in the campaign spending report because it was provided voluntarily.
When Dutton ran for Bennelong earlier this week, Young faced the issue of travel news packs and once again assured his disclosures were in compliance with the law.