Every year Australia’s annual political donation returns are released there is a little more mystery. One of this year’s biggest is why a 25-year-old with corporate links to Hong Kong has donated $100,000 to the Liberal party of Australia.

Jiandong Huang may be one of the Liberal party’s youngest big-spending political donors but he is also one of its least well known.

Australian political donations 2014-15: resource tycoons and unions among top donors Read more

Australia’s major political parties have declared millions of dollars in political donations this year, with major donors including property developers, resource tycoons, unions and industry lobby groups.

The $100,000 given by Huang, a first-time donor, puts him in the top 20 list of benefactors to the Liberal party this year.

Huang does not appear to have lodged his own donation disclosure yet. All that is publicly available from the Liberal party’s own donation disclosure is his name and a residential address in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley. No more is required by the party to identify him under federal donation laws.

Over the past two years Huang became a director of more than 20 companies in Australia. They include companies such as Australian Golden Swan Investment Group Pty Ltd, Australia King Eagle Investment Pty Ltd, Dongliang Pty Ltd and Australia Maxrich Pty Ltd. Most of these companies are largely unknown; basic web searches reveal little about their origins or business dealings.

A single news article from Property Observer suggests Huang’s companies may have some involvement in property development in Australia. The article says Australia King Eagle Investments Pty Ltd was involved in a $60m property development deal in Melbourne to purchase the old ­Kinnears rope factory site in the central business district.

Australian political donations 2014-15: search the data Read more

Many of the companies Huang acts as director for are held beneficially by another company he directs, Australia Star Tower Holdings Pty Ltd. This company is in turn beneficially owned by a Hong Kong company, Star Tower Holding Limited.

Australia has no restrictions on foreign donations, unlike countries such as the United States, and increasingly wealthy offshore developers are making substantial political donations. Last year the mysterious Zi Chung Wang made the largest contribution ever to the Australian Labor party with a $850,000 donation. This year his company, Ever Bright Group, made another sizeable donation but to the Liberal party.

The laws surrounding political donations have been criticised by the Greens as extremely fraught. There is no ceiling on donations and laws surrounding identification are limited. The penalties for failing to disclose donations have been infrequently enforced and declarations are not in real time.