More than 500 of Australia's biggest companies and not-for-profits have been asked to put themselves on the Foreign Influence Transparency Register, the ABC can reveal.

Key points: Just 45 people and organisations have registered so far

Just 45 people and organisations have registered so far Recipients of letters are "strongly encourage[d]" to consider whether they have undertaken "registerable activity"

Recipients of letters are "strongly encourage[d]" to consider whether they have undertaken "registerable activity" The High Court and the departments of Foreign Affairs and Defence were also asked to help in reporting potentially registerable activities

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the big banks, large telecommunications companies, media organisations (including the ABC), multicultural groups and advocacy groups were written to in a mass mailout earlier this year.

The list also includes all Australia's universities, several Chinese language media organisations, controversial Chinese company Landbridge and some refugee support advocates.

Just 45 people and organisations have so far registered.

The mass mailout "strongly encourage[d]" recipients to consider whether they had undertaken "registerable activity", defined as "undertaken on behalf of a foreign principal" and "for political or governmental influence".

The Australian Institute of International Affairs is one such organisation to get the letter.

Yesterday it organised a roundtable of visiting Chinese academics brought to Australia by the Chinese embassy.

One, Chen Hong of East China Normal University, told the ABC that concerns about China's political influence on Australian politics were "a hysterical response to the so-called mad China threat, it is totally fabricated".

Four members of China's embassy in Canberra attended the event and helped organise it.

But the institute's executive director, Bryce Wakefield, said he did not believe the event needed to be registered.

"I had a long conversation with somebody from the Attorney-General's office, because we were interested in this issue, and she said that really the foreign influence transparency scheme pertains to direct influence of federal politicians and federal politics, and that is not the case here," he said.

But the institute does plan on registering after taking a donation from the Japanese Government earlier in the year.

The Government also asked 227 federal politicians from the last parliament and several government agencies for help in reporting foreign attempts at interfering in political processes.

Such agencies included the High Court and the departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Treasury and Home Affairs.

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