China officially tied to OZ probe on interference

Australia has named China in a court document as the foreign state under investigation by police in its first investigation into alleged foreign interference in its affairs.

Ties between Australia and its biggest trading partner have been plagued in recent years by complaints of Chinese interference in Australian politics.

But a document lodged in the High Court on September 1 by the Australian government is the first official acknowledgement the probe into an alleged plot to influence a politician centered on China.

The Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization refused to say whether a raid on the offices of a New South Wales state politician and a staffer on June 26 related to Beijing.

But the court filing with the search warrant identifies the foreign principal as the "Government of the People's Republic of China."

John Zhang, who worked for NSW Labor politician Shaoquett Moselmane, has asked the High Court to quash the search warrants used to search his home and his business and parliamentary offices.

The government's court document was lodged the day after it warned Australian journalists working in China to leave for safety reasons.

The Chinese government has said ASIO searched four Chinese journalists in Australia in June.

And a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: "Some figures in Australia are fond of smearing and attacking China."

Australia's foreign interference law criminalizes harmful or covert conduct by foreign principals seeking to interfere in the democratic processes to support intelligence activities or prejudice Australia's security, the court document noted.

Also yesterday, the Chinese consulate general in Sydney rejected an Australian Broadcasting Corp report that one of its officials was named in the search warrants, terming the accusation as "baseless and nothing but vicious slander."

A police spokeswoman said the investigation continued.