Meanwhile in Australia:

"A Chinese government-backed propaganda unit and a swag of companies that stand to gain from the China Australia Free Trade Agreement have made more than half a million dollars of political donations in Victoria, raising concerns about the influence of foreign donors."

But there are complaints that donors were not getting enough value for their money.

"Chinese-Australian community should get more action for political donations, warns Huang Xiangmo (property developer and chair of the Australia-China Relations Institute, head of the Australian Council for Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China to urge local Chinese-Australians to advance Communist Party core interests)

"We need to learn … how to have a more efficient combination between political requests and political donations, and how to use the media to push our political requests."

See PM Trudeau and the Federal Liberal party - it 's pay for play. And a chilling note about manipulating the media.