Liberal MPs say they will not use Chinese social media app WeChat in the lead up to the federal election after Prime Minister Scott Morrison was blocked from using the platform in a move some government MPs have likened to foreign interference.
Mr Morrison’s WeChat account, which has about 76,000 followers, was taken over and rebranded “Australian Chinese new life” earlier this month, with the government given no prior warning. The sparsely used account, which posted only 20 times last year, was used to deliver press releases from the Prime Minister in Chinese and COVID-19 updates, with minimal focus on the Chinese community in Australia or on Australia’s ongoing diplomatic disputes with China.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s WeChat account was taken over and rebranded.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The account takeover, first reported by The Daily Telegraph on Monday occurred after the Prime Minister was locked out of his account in July. The “Australian Chinese new life” account has not posted any new information or updates since the takeover.
There are more than 1 billion users of WeChat around the world, according to marketing firm Bastion Asia. The platform is the dominant means of communication both in China and among the Chinese diaspora overseas, making it an important election tool in culturally and linguistically diverse seats in both Melbourne and Sydney ahead of the upcoming election, due by May.
WeChat and company records verified by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, show the account was taken over by Fuzhou 985 Information Technology Co on October 28. The company’s legal representative is Huang Aipeng. Two-thirds of the company is controlled by Xiamen Yixiang, which is wholly owned by another individual identified as Chen Yinlan. The company’s registered website is a Chinese betting agency, Boyu Sports, where Chinese punters can bet on the English Premier League and other major sports for “weekly VIP red envelopes,” a practice that is illegal in China but operates underground and online.
Huang told SBS Chinese on Monday that he did not know it was the Australian Prime Minister’s account when he purchased it from another Chinese businessman last year.
“My purchase of this account has nothing to do with the government, and it is purely a legal business transaction,” he said. “I’m a businessman. The account is legal, the content is legal, and the price is reasonable. I don’t pay attention to the rest.”
A government source said repeated requests to restore the account had gone unanswered by WeChat and Chinese tech giant Tencent, which owns the platform, fuelling suspicion it was not a third-party hack and involved Chinese state interference.
The appeals include a letter sent to Tencent chairman and chief executive Ma Huateng on January 10 on behalf of the government by a local Chinese agency that operated Mr Morrison’s account, the source, who requested anonymity to discuss the details, said.
Fuzhou 985 is not the same agency commissioned by Mr Morrison to host his account in China. The government source confirmed the PM’s office has not contacted Fuzhou 985. Mr Morrison’s account is also registered as a Weixin account – restricted for users in mainland China, not a WeChat account – which is the account used by users of the platform overseas, potentially putting Mr Morrison in breach of WeChat’s user regulations.
Victorian Liberal MP Gladys Liu, who has a professional WeChat account and a personal account to communicate with her friends and family, said Mr Morrison’s inability to access his account was “deeply disappointing and raises serious concerns of political interference”. She said she would not use her accounts until the platform provided an explanation.
“It is a matter of record that the platform has stopped the Prime Minister’s access, while
[Opposition Leader] Anthony Albanese’s account is still active featuring posts criticising the government,” Ms Liu said in a statement.
“In an election year especially, this sort of interference in our political processes is unacceptable, and this matter should be taken extremely seriously by all Australian politicians.”
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke and Assistant Minister to Prime Minister David Coleman who have not used their WeChat accounts since the last federal election in 2019, also confirmed they would not be using their accounts for the foreseeable future. A spokesman for Mr Hawke said he “looks forward to an explanation as to the misappropriation of the Australian Prime Minister’s WeChat account”.
Asked about the issue in a radio interview on Monday, Mr Albanese said the reports of Prime Minister’s account takeover were “a real concern” but did not say whether he would join the boycott.
”I’m more than happy to have a chat with Scott Morrison about these issues and also with our national security agencies,” Mr Albanese said on Brisbane’s 4BC radio.
“I do note that no one has contacted me from the Liberal Party and if they were serious about it, then someone would have picked up the phone yesterday.”
Liberal Senator James Paterson, chairman of Parliament’s joint committee on intelligence and security and vocal critic of Chinese Communist Party interference, said WeChat was the most widely used social media service in Australia by the Chinese-Australian community.
“We think there’s about a million active users in Australia, so it’s the best way for an Australian politician to communicate to the Chinese Australian community, particularly in the lead up to an election later this year,” Senator Paterson told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“This is pretty clearly and transparently an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to censor the Australian Prime Minister and prevent him from campaigning to the Chinese Australian community.”
Haiqing Yu, an expert in China’s digital media at Melbourne’s RMIT University, said it was important to establish if WeChat or the Chinese government had blocked the account before jumping to conclusions.
“There’s nothing there [on the account] except for Morrison’s own articles,” she said. “It’s just very basic, very perfunctory. Just like a tick box exercise to say he cares about the Chinese community.”
Professor Yu said Australian politicians had not harnessed the platform effectively despite its importance to the Chinese community.
“Ignoring the most popular platform in a time of digital and social media is not a wise move,” she said.
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