Members of an events committee at a Sydney council sought the opinion of the Chinese consulate on receiving sponsorship from an Australian-owned media company over fears it may be deemed "anti-China".

The Georges River Council Major Events Advisory Committee (MEAC) committee members raised concerns that news outlet Vision China Times supported Falun Gong - a movement labelled a "heretical cult" by the Chinese Communist Party - a day before the sponsorship deal was hastily scrapped.

The Vision China Times.

"I am aware that member(s) of MEAC directly contacted the Office of the Chinese Consul-General of the People's Republic of China ... to ascertain it views on the sponsorship," then-acting general manager David Tuxford, who was at the meeting, said in a file note of the January 16, 2018 meeting.

In that file note, among a bundle of documents discovered under freedom of information laws, Mr Tuxford said a Chinese consulate representative contacted the council a day after the meeting, expressing concerns about Vision China Times sponsoring the council's Lunar New Year event due to the organisation being "politically anti-China".