tMuch has been made of Ian Tang, the person who at the very least manages Beijing AustChina. As to who precisely owns the company and who finances this big donor to political parties in Australia (often the Australian Labor Party), and financier of up and coming politicians, including Rudd as the then Opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman, has been difficult to determine.
Often in such cases where financial linkages are difficult to determine, indirect means of establishing linkages are necessary. One method is to trace the ownership and registration of websites. An investigation of the Beijing AustChina website reveals its website bact.com.cn to be administered by [email protected].
Ltt.com.cn is the website of the LTT Textiles Co. Ltd. The company’s address - 310 North Zhongshan Road, Hangzhou, China, 310003 - matches that of the Zhejiang Metals and Minerals Imp. & Exp. Co . Likewise, LTT Textiles phone number: 86 - 571 - 85775641 matches one that has been provided for the Zhejiang Metals & Minerals’s export department -see here and also here.
The Zhejiang Metals & Minerals Imp. & Exp. Co, despite its name, also produces and sells textiles - as does LTT Textiles of the same address.
And Zhejiang Metals & Minerals is owned by the Chinese state.
To add to that, China Directory gives as the website of the Beijing AustChina Scientific Technology Co. the home page of LTT Textiles.
True, the Australian company is Beijing AustChina Technology - but it shares the same address as the Beijing AustChina Scientific Technology Co in Beijing.
And here’s the second: Rm. A-3207, Offiec Building, Caifu Center, No. 7, Dongsanhuan Middle Road, Chaoyang, Beijing
To summarise - a Chinese Government-owned company shares the address, phone number and line of business of a company which in turn runs the website of the mysterious company which sponsored Kevin Rudd’s trips.
And Ganesh’s question, rewritten for legal reasons: Did Beijing AustChina use - perhaps indirectly - Chinese Government funding when it sponsored the trips of Kevin Rudd?
No conclusions are drawn from these admittedly tenuous links - just questions asked that should be followed up in Parliament by the Oppostion. And to be absolutely clear: Rudd would certainly not know where the money for his trips ultimately came from, and has said he was ”not really across” Tang’s business.
To note: Beijing AustChina says of itself that it is “a Beijing-registered, foreign-owned company”, but has established close working relationships with key decision makers and figureheads in government agencies in both Australia and China. his was way back in 2008 by Andrew Bolt.....
SMA Price at posting:
0.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
