A rising Labor star running for leadership of the NSW party received a $5,000 "moving expenses" payment as part of a six-figure donation to Labor by an association linked to a Sydney businessman with deep links to the Chinese Communist Party, the ABC can reveal.

Key points: According to an ALP invoice, the $5,000 payment was taken out of a $100,000 donation from a community association run by Frank Chou to Labor's federal health spokesman Chris Bowen in 2013

According to an ALP invoice, the $5,000 payment was taken out of a $100,000 donation from a community association run by Frank Chou to Labor's federal health spokesman Chris Bowen in 2013 Mr Chou is one of Sydney's highest profile Chinese-Australian businessmen and has abiding connections to Beijing's influence-peddling machine, the United Front Works Department

Mr Chou is one of Sydney's highest profile Chinese-Australian businessmen and has abiding connections to Beijing's influence-peddling machine, the United Front Works Department He tells the ABC the donation may have been made of behalf of one or more "businessmen friends", which could be a breach of federal electoral law

The $5,000 payment to Labor MP Chris Minns also raised questions for Labor's federal health spokesman Chris Bowen, who was the beneficiary of the $100,000 donation from which Mr Minns's payment was drawn.

The donation and payment were the latest in a series of disturbing allegations regarding Chinese Communist Party influence exerted over Australian politicians via large donations from Beijing-backed businessmen, including the occasional payment of politicians' personal expenses.

Two party insiders described the payment as unusual, while others said the airing of old incidents was an example of how toxic the NSW branch of the Labor Party has become as it chooses a new parliamentary leader.

Mr Minns is running against fellow Labor MP Jodi McKay for leadership of the NSW parliamentary party, promising a "fresh approach".

The results of a leadership ballot will be known later this month.

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The donation and payment were discussed internally by the Labor Party but remained confidential for six years, until the ABC recently obtained a pair of internal ALP invoices.

The invoices detailed the $100,000 donation to Mr Bowen's 2013 re-election campaign in the federal seat of McMahon, and the subsequent $5,000 payment to Mr Minns.

Chris Minns featured on a sign wishing people a happy Year of the Rooster in 2017. ( Facebook: Chris Minns )

Adding to the mystery, the businessman recorded as the customer reference for the donation — Sydney-based Chinese community leader and businessman Frank Chou — told the ABC he did not recall the Teo Chew Association making the donation.

He told the ABC he thought it may have been given by one or more "businessmen friends" under the name of the Teo Chew Association.

The donation

The first ALP invoice recorded the $100,000 donation. It was made on April 19, 2013 by the Australian Chinese Teo Chew Association, with the customer reference "Frank Chou".

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Mr Chou is the chairman of the Teo Chew Association, an organisation representing an ethno-linguistic group of migrants from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

"Donation to Chris Bowen campaign — to be transferred to Chris Bowen fund," the invoice noted.

In a written statement to the ABC, Mr Bowen said: "My understanding is the donation was fully declared in accordance with the law".

NSW ALP general secretary Kaila Murnain declined to speak to the ABC but did say via a spokesperson that all donations were accepted in accordance with electoral law.

Mr Bowen acknowledged that he had meet Mr Chou on "a small number of occasions" but had nothing to do with him for several years.

Mr Bowen's federal seat of McMahon has a large Chinese-speaking population and he has attended numerous Chinese community events and mixed with community leaders — including some linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

He received gifts from one of those leaders. Two months before the $100,000 was donated to Mr Bowen's campaign, he declared he had received a bottle of 2002 Penfolds Grange from Huang Xiangmo.

Bottle of wine gifted by Xiangmo to Bowen

Mr Huang is a Chinese billionaire property developer who had his application for citizenship denied and was prevented from returning to Australia earlier this year because of concerns about his links with Beijing.

The payment

The second invoice dealt with the payment to Mr Minns. It recorded that 10 days after NSW Labor received the $100,000 donation to Mr Bowen, they authorised the release of $5,000 to Mr Minns for "expenses incur (sic) returning home to work on McMahon campaign".

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The invoice noted that the $5,000 was taken from the $100,000 Teo Chew donation.

At the time of the donation Mr Minns was living in the US and studying at Princeton University.

Frank Chou speaking at an Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China gala in 2015. ( Supplied: ACPPRC )

A spokesperson for Mr Minns said the Labor politician was asked to return to Australia to become Mr Bowen's campaign manager.

"Mr Minns was engaged as a salaried employee of the NSW Labor Party, and to his knowledge his wages, and any associated expenses, were paid through the normal NSW ALP employment and expense channels," the spokesperson said.

Mr Bowen declined to respond to a question about whether he was aware of, or played a role in, the $5,000 provided to Mr Minns. He did confirm that in concert with NSW head office, he requested Mr Minns run his 2013 campaign.

The ABC does not intend to suggest that Mr Bowen or Mr Minns engaged in unlawful conduct, and a NSW ALP spokesperson said they were aware of the $5,000 payment and no party regulations had been breached.

"Expenditure was incurred in line with the relevant policies of the party at the time," they said.

NSW Labor

It is not the first time money linked to Beijing-backed businessmen has raised uncomfortable questions for Australian politicians.

Huang Xiangmo and then-senator Sam Dastyari at a press conference for Chinese media in 2016. ( Supplied )

In 2017, Labor senator and former NSW Labor Party head Sam Dastyari resigned from federal Parliament after growing concern about his links to the Chinese Communist Party via several Australian-based Chinese businessmen.

In 2014 Mr Dastyari allowed Huang Xiangmo — the same man who gifted Mr Bowen the bottle of Grange — to cover a legal bill.

The next year a Melbourne-based businessman, Zhu Minshen, covered a $1,670.82 overspend on Mr Dastyari's parliamentary travel budget.

Ernest Wong was until recently an Upper House member of the NSW Parliament. He was for years considered to be Mr Huang's closest political ally and the chief fundraiser for the NSW ALP.

Mr Minns's best friend Jamie Clements was a senior NSW Labor official at the time of the $5,000 payment.

He left the party a year later, after he was convicted of leaking confidential enrolment details to a union ally.

Mr Clements now works as a lawyer and advisor to Chinese companies looking to invest in Australia.

At least two of the businesses addresses at which Mr Clements previously ran his law firm are owned by Mr Huang.

Frank Chou (left), Chris Minns (centre) and Jamie Clements (right) at the launch of Federation of Australian Shenzhen Community in November 2016. ( ABC News )

The ABC was told Mr Clements has been the subject of questions asked by the NSW anti-corruption body, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), regarding an ongoing investigation into a series of donations made in 2015 that may be linked to Mr Huang.

Until a few months ago former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr ran a University of Technology Sydney think tank established with $1.8 million of Mr Huang's money.

Former NSW general secretary Eric Roozendaal left parliament to work for Mr Huang's company, Yuhu.

The relationships between NSW Labor figures and pro-Beijing businessmen such as Mr Huang became so widespread and controversial by 2017 that MP Andrew Wilkie told the ABC there was clearly an institutional problem.

"I think it is a reasonable conclusion to draw that so much money has now come from Chinese interests to, at least, the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party [that] in essence, China has bought the New South Wales Labor Party," he said.

'It's highly unusual': Labor insider

The ABC spoke to nine federal and state ALP officials, candidates and serving politicians regarding the donation and the $5,000 payment. All spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Chris Minns (front, second from left) and Jodi McKay (in red) at a 2018 gala celebrating 200 years of Chinese Australian migration. ( Facebook: Chris Minns )

One serving MP said the Minns payment appeared odd.

"These are donations to the party to run campaigns, not to defray an individual's personal expenses," the MP said.

"It's highly unusual," said a former Labor official who worked at NSW headquarters at the time of the $5,000 payment.

Another MP said the donation and payment raised questions about Mr Minns' role as a member of a group of party officials who have for years exercised outsized power over the NSW Labor Party.

"This is isn't about factions, this is the machine," the official said.

"The machine" is a reference to a group of salaried and influential ALP head office figures, including Sam Dastyari, Jamie Clements and Chris Minns, who all served as secretaries or assistant secretaries of the NSW party over the past decade.

Mr Bowen and Mr Minns have been factional allies who became friends while working for former NSW Labor minister Carl Scully in the early 2000s.

Two party officials told the ABC the atmosphere in the NSW branch was particularly toxic at the moment and they were concerned old incidents were being used as political weapons in the leadership competition between Mr Minns and Ms McKay.

Chris Bowen endorsing Chris Minns for the NSW Labor leadership earlier this month. ( Facebook: Chris Bowen )

Mr Chou

Speaking to the ABC over the phone, Mr Chou said he did not recall the Teo Chew Association or himself giving $100,000 to the ALP.

"In 2013 I did help ALP politicians' campaigns, but I didn't donate $100,000," he said.

When pressed about where the association's donation came from he said: "It's possible that my friends asked me to donate it for them".

When the ABC asked which friends, he replied: "businessmen".

"The association doesn't have money, we rely on the donations of others," he said.

He also said that he and the Teo Chew Association never made unsolicited donations — they only gave money after being asked to by party representatives.

The ABC was unable to establish who, if anyone, from the ALP, solicited the donation.

If the Teo Chew Association made a donation that was actually the money of another person, that raised questions as to whether it may amount to evidence of straw donations — illegal under Australian electoral law.

"The circumstances surrounding the contribution by the Australian Teo Chew Association to the NSW ALP suggest that it might have been used to conceal the identity of the actual donor," said Joo-Cheong Tham, an electoral law expert from Melbourne University.

"This is particularly troubling given the links the association has to the Chinese Communist Party government."

During the phone call Mr Chou, who said he donated to both the Labor and Liberal parties, repeatedly referred to political donations as "doing good things".

"We are serving society; politicians are our friends," he said.

"We have relationships and we have affection for each other. When they are running their campaigns and need support, I will support them.

"We don't do any bad things; we do it [donate] in good faith."

The council

The Teo-Chew Association is one of 81 Chinese community groups that are members of the Australian Council for the Peaceful Promotion of the Reunification of China (ACPPRC), according to an article published by an ACPPRC-associated newspaper in 2017.

Huang Xiangmo shaking hands with China's President Xi Jinping. Frank Chou is pictured to Mr Huang's left. ( Supplied: ACPPRC )

According to a submission to federal Parliament's intelligence and security committee by academic Clive Hamilton and China researcher Alex Joske, the ACPPRC is "one of the most active and visible arms of the Chinese Communist Party's interference operations in Australian social and political life".

Until March this year Mr Chou was listed on the ACPPRC's website as a "life senior honorary advisor".

Mr Huang was chairman of the ACPPRC from 2014 to 2017.

Mr Chou told the ABC he was unhappy that Mr Huang had been denied permission to return to Australia because he had done nothing wrong.

"As Chinese [immigrants] to Australia, no one speak for us; Huang only wants the two countries to befriend each other. This is good for everyone," he said.

Mr Chou said Mr Huang had only done "good things" while in Australia. "He is a friend of mine. I cannot understand why he was expelled from Australia."