EXCLUSIVE: 'Vote for our own people': Pro-Beijing Liberal candidate's message in Chinese for voters to choose him because of his RACE - as his chilling support for China's aggressive expansion is revealed
- Peter Zhuang is Liberal National Party candidate for Brisbane seat of Stretton
- He placed ads in Chinese languages papers saying 'vote for our own people'
- Electorate he's running in takes in Sunnybank Hills which has high Chinese vote
- Mr Zhuang posted a Facebook message in 2013 urging China to be aggressive
- Told Daily Mail Australia there needed to be more Chinese people in Parliament
A pro-Beijing Liberal candidate has taken out ads in a Chinese-language newspaper urging voters with the same ethnic background to elect 'one of their own people'.
Peter Zhuang, a 51-year-old property developer and company director, is representing the Liberal National Party at this Saturday's Queensland state election in the southern Brisbane seat of Stretton, which has a high concentration of voters with a Chinese background.
Ahead of the Halloween election on October 31, Mr Zhuang placed an advertisement in last week's Queensland Chinese Times.
Translated from Mandarin, his pitch said: 'Vote for Peter Zhuang, vote for our own people.'
His full-page advertisement also promised to 'establish a Chinese hub'.
'A home of Chinese people, build a not-for-profit organisation for Chinese in terms of making friends, exercising, doing other entertainment events,' the ad said.
Daily Mail Australia can also reveal Mr Zhuang, who moved to Australia in 2005, has previously called on Communist China to exert it its influence from the South China Sea to northern Asia and Australia.
An LNP candidate took out an ad in a Mandarin-language newspaper urging ethnic voters to back him because he's Chinese. Peter Zhuang, a property developer, took out an ad in the Queensland Chinese Times (pictured) which said in Mandarin: 'Vote for our own people'
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Australia is highly sensitive to potential Chinese influence in its politics as concerns grow the Communist superpower has been covertly pushing its global agenda.
When asked about the front page spread Mr Zhuang told Daily Mail Australia Queensland's Parliament needed more people of Chinese heritage.
'The Chinese people, roughly, have five percentage of the whole Australia population so at this rate, we have 93 state MPs, so we should have at least four MPs with Chinese background,' he said.
'Being a member of Parliament means you are part of Australia.'
Mr Zhuang, who was born in the city of Taiyuan in the Shanxi province south-west of Beijing, said the Chinese community deserved to have its own hub like any other ethnic group.
The theme continued in another advertisement placed in the Asian Community News, World News Weekly and the Queensland Asian Business Weekly promising to 'establish a Chinese-Australian centre'. 'Compatriots with the same root, the same clan, and the same source make it easier to communicate,' this ad translated into English said. 'The Chinese community should unite and elect our own representatives'
'The Chinese community dreams of having a place to gather, to know each other,' Mr Zhuang said.
'I know some other ethnic communities have their own places.'
Another advertisement placed in the Asian Community News, World News Weekly and the Queensland Asian Business Weekly promised to 'establish a Chinese-Australian centre'.
'Compatriots with the same root, the same clan, and the same source make it easier to communicate,' this ad translated into English said.
'The Chinese community should unite and elect our own representatives.'
Peter Zhuang has an image of himself on Facebook with China's Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye (right), who in April threatened Chinese trade sanctions against Australia after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan. They were photographed together in Brisbane in August 2017
Despite making a play for the Chinese vote, Mr Zhuang recommended LNP voters give their second preference to One Nation candidate Alexey Chekhunov, a property manager and migration agent, ahead of Labor and the Greens. One Nation's founder Pauline Hanson's maiden speech to federal Parliament infamously declared Australia was 'in danger of being swamped by Asians'.
Mr Zhuang is the founder and managing director of the Bristar group, a property management company which also lists migration services on its website.
'Bristar Migration & Education Co., Ltd., gathers industry elites and provides high-quality, efficient, and attentive services for overseas high-net-worth people,' the website said.
'Over the years, relying on the advantages of the group, it has provided a one-stop service for new migrants to settle in Australia.'
Peter Zhuang, a property developer, is representing the Liberal National Party at this month's Queensland state election in the southern Brisbane seat of Stretton, which has a high concentration of Chinese voters. He is pictured with the former LNP member for Stretton Freya Ostapovitch, who in 2014 told Parliament abortion was linked with breast cancer
Mr Zhuang (third from the left) was photographed with former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott (third from the right) in May 2018
In 2017, he established a 'Chinese Heritage Branch' for the LNP, which controversially is only open to Chinese people.
The Queensland Opposition party has two branches, one in Brisbane and another on the Gold Coast.
The Stretton electorate he is running in includes Sunnybank Hills where 14 per cent of the population was born in mainland China, a significantly higher proportion than the Queensland average of one per cent in the 2016 Census.
Mr Zhuang's personal Facebook page in March 2013 also had a message in Mandarin which urged Communist China to more aggressively spread its influence from the South China Sea to northern Asia and Australia.
In 2013, Mr Zhuang wrote a message on Facebook in Mandarin which said: 'I urge the Chinese government to follow the law and promote the "strike hard" and "suppression" overseas, starting with neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan, and gradually spreading to the Americas, Europe and Australia, so that people of all ethnic groups will feel China's presence.' Pictured is a Chinese Navel shop in Sydney in June 2019
Mr Zhuang's personal Facebook page in March 2013 also had a message in Mandarin which urged Communist China to more aggressively spread its influence - from the South China Sea to northern Asia and Australia
Asked about that seven-year-old Facebook post, Mr Zhuang said he did not recall publishing the social media post, which was still published as of Tuesday
The LNP's Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner introduced him at a campaign event
'I urge the Chinese government to follow the law and promote the "strike hard" and "suppression" overseas, starting with neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan, and gradually spreading to the Americas, Europe and Australia, so that people of all ethnic groups will feel China's presence,' he wrote.
Asked about that seven-year-old Facebook post, Mr Zhuang said he did not recall publishing the social media post, which was still online as of Tuesday afternoon.
'I had forgotten it,' he said by phone.
'I don't think that's what I said. I can't remember. I don't think it's my post.'
Mr Zhuang sent Daily Mail Australia a follow-up email on Wednesday afternoon, via the office of Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, which said his 2013 Facebook post was referencing a Chinese comedian, Brother Sway, who lives in the United States.
'Seven years ago I posted an article by a Chinese comedian to my Facebook profile about how people of Chinese heritage are perceived internationally and how foreigners are perceived in China,' he said.
'The comments, which are not my mine, reference Chinese fighters participating in the UFC and how good it would be if they won.'
Mr Zhuang also has an image of himself on Facebook with China's Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye, who in April threatened Chinese trade sanctions against Australia after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan.
They were photographed together in August 2017 during Mr Cheng's visit to Brisbane and the image featured on the social media page of Mr Zhuang's Bristar property company.
In 2017, he established a 'Chinese Heritage Branch' for the LNP. The Opposition has two branches, one in Brisbane and another on the Gold Coast. Pictured is an LNP fundraiser from 2017 featuring former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk, federal Liberal MP Ross Vasta and state LNP frontbencher Steve Minnikin
The LNP's Chinese Heritage Branch is controversially only open to people who are Chinese
In October 2015, Mr Zhuang appeared at a community event in Brisbane to mark the arrival of the Chinese People's Liberation Army naval Peace Ark hospital ship.
'We thank the Chinese government for giving us this opportunity so that overseas Chinese can have a sense of the motherland,' he said, in remarks noted by Australian National University visiting fellow and Asian affairs expert Geoff Wade.
While Mr Zhuang said he supported freedom of religion, he declined to condemn China's treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority, who are put into re-education camps in the far western Xinjiang province, or comment on Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Chinese influence in Australian politics has increasingly become a sensitive issue as concerns grow the Communist superpower has been covertly pushing its global agenda
Last year, backbench federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu confirmed she was affiliated with Chinese Communist Party United Front groups, as honorary president of the United Chinese Commerce Association of Australia and the Australian Jiangmen General Commercial Association.
The member for Chisholm in Melbourne's south-east, who was born in Hong Kong, also had an honorary role with the Guangdong Overseas Exchange Association in 2011.
The Chinese Communist Party's diaspora network, the United Work Front Department, runs community groups and promotes the idea Taiwan and Hong Kong should be directly controlled by mainland China.
Liberal and Labor MPs have been connected to the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China, which is linked to United Front.
Sam Dastyari's career as a New South Wales Labor senator ended in January 2018 after he contradicted the ALP's South China Sea position at a media conference for Chinese-language publications.
Banned Chinese property billionaire Huang Xiangmo had promised the ALP a $400,000 donation if it changed its policy on the disputed South China Sea and Mr Dastyari was bugged visiting him at his Sydney north shore home.
While Mr Zhuang said he supported freedom of religion, he declined to condemn China's treatment of its Muslim Uighur minority, who are put into re-education camps in the far western Xinjiang province, or comment on Chinese President Xi Jinping. He is standing next to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (third left) in October 2017
His LNP Facebook page includes a graphic of him with Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington and Liberal Prime Minister Scott Morrison
NSW upper house MP Shaoquette Moselmane was suspended from the Labor Party in June after the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation raided his Sydney home over alleged links to China.
Mr Zhuang's LNP Facebook page includes a graphic of him with Ms Frecklington and Mr Morrison.
While he isn't pictured with them on his Facebook, the LNP's Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner introduced him at a campaign event.
Despite his Chinese connections and Mandarin-language advertisements, Mr Zhuang said new migrants needed to 'be part of Australia, to integrate in Australia'.
'In Australia, we should speak English. Mandarin is a second language,' he said.
The LNP has only won Stretton once, between 2012 and 2015, since the electorate was created in 2001 and is now a safe Labor seat held by Duncan Pegg.
Despite his Chinese connections and Mandarin-language advertisements, Mr Zhuang said new migrants needed to 'be part of Australia, to integrate in Australia'. He is pictured with Malcolm Turnbull in May 2018 when he was still Prime Minister
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