Tasmanian Greens leader accused of 'racist dog-whistling' as party split over China

Cassy O’Connor said there was evidence China was seeking to influence Hobart council race

Debate over alleged Chinese government interference in a Tasmanian local council race has divided the Greens, with the state party leader accused of “racist dog-whistling”.

An Australian Young Greens leader has called for the resignation of the party’s Tasmanian leader, Cassy O’Connor, after she linked the alleged interference to a Australian-Chinese Hobart City council candidate.

O’Connor, who has been a vocal critical of the Hodgman government’s relationship with the Chinese government, had warned last month there was a “growing body of extremely credible evidence” the Chinese Communist party was seeking to influence the council race.

O’Connor used a speech to parliament to draw attention to a candidate, Yongbei Tang, who is Chinese-Australian and was the editor of a newspaper that ran an article saying Australia was a country dominated by white people and urging Chinese-Australians to vote for Tang.

The Young Greens’ national co-convenor, Mark Clayton, accused O’Connor of “straight up racist dog-whistling” and called on her to resign.

“WTF are you doing in the Greens, the rest of us are fighting against racism and here you are standing side-by-side with Hanson,” he wrote in a tweet.

Clayton added that he supported O’Connor’s criticism of China’s human rights abuses but took issue “where you accuse Chinese-Australians in our communities as part of a grand conspiracy”.

“Students enrolling having a say in their city is an idea that we should be championing,” he said.

O’Connor stood by her comments, saying the accusations of racism were “false” and “a slur” and that her concerns were “backed by evidence”.

“These accusations (of racism) give succour to a totalitarian regime that’s oppressing around 14 M Uyghurs & Kazakhs, spies on its citizens wherever they live & runs influence ops in sovereign democracies like (Tasmania),” she wrote in a tweet.

Concerns in some quarters about Chinese foreign investment and potential political interference in Tasmania have grown in recent years.

The debate intensified last month after the Mercury newspaper reported that Tang had attended the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress last year.

The following day the Mercury reported that the paper headed by Tang had called on Chinese-Australians to back her in a bid to “put a nail in Tasmania’s politics”.

In her speech to parliament, O’Connor said Tang had “published extremely concerning statements” as editor of the Tasmanian Chinese News Network.

“The article in Chinese News Tasmania notes that ‘Australia is a society dominated by white people’ and called on Chinese people living in Tasmaniato back Ms Tang’s election,” O’Connor said.

Tang, who is an Australian citizen, has stressed that she has no links or sympathies with the Chinese Communist party, appreciated Australian values and simply wanted to give back to the country.

Academic Clive Hamilton, a prominent critic of the Chinese government, said in a speech to a Hobart audience on Tuesday that the state’s “uncritical embrace” of Beijing meant it was a soft target for Chinese Communist party influence.

The dependence on Chinese demand in the education and tourism sectors meant Tasmania was vulnerable to economic coercion, he said.

The state government has dismissed the claims. The Tasmanian premier, Will Hodgman, told the Australian during a visit to Beijing last month that fears about Chinese influence in his state “don’t stack up”.

O’Connor was unavailable for comment. But a spokeswoman said the “Tasmanian Greens MPs’ offices haven’t received any critical correspondence from Chinese-Australians” in response to her comments.