Growing tension between the Chinese and Australian governments over allegations of undue political influence has filtered into coverage of the Bennelong byelection in Chinese-Australian media, potentially hurting the Liberal Party's chances in Saturday's knife-edge poll.

As attacks by the Coalition on Sam Dastyari over his association with Chinese government-linked donors ramped up over the past few days, the People's Daily, a major Chinese state-controlled outlet, took a hard line against the Australian government, publishing an opinion piece on Monday decrying the debate as racist and urging the government and media to "discard their political biases and prejudices."

After that piece was published, the tone of coverage of the byelection rapidly began to change in Australian-based Chinese media. That coverage may prove crucial in the election on Saturday, as Bennelong has the highest percentage of Chinese-Australians of any seat in the country.

Hours after the People's Daily piece ran, Sydney Today, one of Sydney's largest online Chinese media outlets, described Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as "standing at the front line of anti-Chinese sentiment".