The bribes ranged from $5000 spending money given to one official prior to visiting Australia, to 55.6 million yuan ($11.86 million) embezzled from a subway project in Hangzhou by a company executive who fled to Australia – she later returned to China and was given a life sentence.

The court files show Australia had twice the number of mentions as Canada and three times that of New Zealand, other destinations also cited as favourites for corrupt Chinese officials. The United States led the list with 376 mentions.

Transparency International Australia chief executive Phil Newman noted Australia's score on the global Corruption Perceptions Index recently slipped for the third year in a row. Australia is now outside the top 10 and lags behind the likes of New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

"That's indicative of the external perception of Australia and reflects an inertia and complacency about enforcement of foreign bribery laws. It's not a good look and makes Australia a softer target. We're greatly concerned about that," Mr Newman said.

In one case, the daughter of a forestry official from Sichuan Province, Li Mingjie, was given nearly $24,000 in cash prior to departing for university in Australia.

The court files document how Li and his family were having Sunday lunch in September 2012, when two businessmen dropped by to offer their "congratulations" to his daughter.

'Loan from uncle'

The first arrived with an envelope filled with 100,000 yuan in cash.


The court files say the daughter was initially reluctant to accept the money, but relented when her farther explained it was "just a loan from uncle", although the rate of interest or a payback period was never discussed.

At the same lunch another business associate of her father's called in and gave her 10,000 yuan, also in cash, to help with the cost of her studies in Australia.

Mr Li was convicted in December 2014 of taking 5.1 million yuan in bribes and handed an 18-year jail term.

In China's capital, Beijing, the money on offer was far larger for the likes of Li Zhu, a city level official who was given a suspended death sentence in December 2013 for graft totalling 59 million yuan.

The court files show he asked a business contact to "assist" in obtaining some Australia dollars prior to his son leaving for university in Australia.

Shortly after this conversation the businessman dropped off $100,000 in cash and said the official "could pay him later".

Another case shows how a corrupt Chinese official appeared to have few problems transferring money into Australia.

In February 2012, according to the court documents, a Chinese property developer transferred $HK500,000 ($88,000) to a Shanghai government official's account at HSBC in Australia.

The official Wan Zhengwei, who was convicted of taking more than $1.3 million in bribes, used this money as a down payment on a property in Sydney.

With Lucy Gao