Australia\u2019s domestic spy agency is investigating whether China tried to install an agent in federal parliament in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday called \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said it had launched an investigation before the alleged plot was reported by Australia\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d programme and affiliated newspapers on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe reporting on Nine\u2019s \u201860 Minutes\u2019 contains allegations that ASIO takes seriously,\u201d ASIO Director-General of Security Mike Burgess said in the statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAustralians can be reassured that ASIO was previously aware of matters that have been reported today, and has been actively investigating them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resource-rich Australia\u2019s ties with its most important trading partner China have deteriorated in recent years, amid accusations that Beijing is meddling in domestic affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has set up a counter-foreign interference coordinator and given the intelligence and security agencies additional resources to protect Australians and the nation\u2019s institutions, a government spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Car dealer Zhao told ASIO about the alleged approach from another Melbourne businessman about a year ago, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said in the joint report with \u201c60 Minutes\u201d and The Age newspaper, citing Zhao\u2019s associates and Western security sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHostile foreign intelligence activity continues to pose a real threat to our nation and its security. ASIO will continue to confront and counter foreign interference and espionage in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest allegations came a day after media reported that a Chinese defector, who said he was an intelligence operative, told ASIO how China had funded and conducted political interference in Taiwan, Australia and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to the media reports, Chinese police said the \u201cso-called China spy\u201d was a 26-year-old convicted fraudster from the eastern province of Fujian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia\u2019s domestic spy agency is investigating whether China tried to install an agent in federal parliament in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75166,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75164\/revisions\/75166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}