The leader of the Tasmanian Greens has doubled down over a Hobart council candidate's alleged links to China's Communist Party, telling party colleagues accusing her of racism to "do their research", as the woman at the centre of the row revealed she has been targeted by slurs.

Australian citizen Yongbei Tang, who is standing at this month's Tasmanian local government elections, has strenuously denied being influenced by China through her links to the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China (ACPPRC), a group widely regarded as an arm of China's Communist Party and formerly run by prominent political donor Huang Xiangmo — the man at the centre of the foreign donations scandal which brought down Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

Loopholes in legislation allowing for non-citizens of Australia to vote in Tasmanian local government elections led to some, including former Hobart lord mayor Sue Hickey, to complain of the potential for the voting roll to be stacked by candidates.

The legislation also allows for business owners to vote twice.

Cassy O'Connor condemned racist slurs being directed towards Ms Tang but said she bore no personal responsibility. ( ABC News: James Dunlevie )

Ms Tang has categorically denied membership of or influence from China's Communist Party, and has said she resigned from her vice-chair role with the ACPPRC earlier in the year.

In September, she was quoted by News Corporation as saying: "I am very grateful for the chance to be an Australian citizen, my children have grown up here and I appreciate Australian values ... I just want to give back. I am not a member of the Chinese Communist Party. I'm a good Australian citizen".

Ms Tang has said the media storm around her council candidacy, including an open letter from a group of Hobart-based Chinese Australians saying she did not represent their interests, had taken a heavy emotional toll, culminating in her election signs being defaced with racist slurs over the weekend.

But Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor today rejected accusations from within her own party that she had indulged in "dog whistling" politics and reaffirmed she had based her comments on assessments from Australia's security agency ASIO.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I don't have a racist bone in my body," she told ABC Hobart this morning.

In September, Ms O'Connor told the Tasmanian Parliament Ms Tang had authored an article in Chinese News Tasmania newspaper, which she said included passages translated from the original Mandarin to English such as "Australia is a society dominated by white people" and "one councillor is far from enough ... we need to put a nail in Tasmania's politics and add another one four years later ... we have dominated business circles, now we need to establish ourselves in politics".

She singled out Ms Yongbei Tang as the editor of the newspaper, adding the article represented "a fundamental misunderstanding of democratic parliaments in the Westminster system".

Hobart council candidate Yongbei Tang, who has denied links to China's Communist Party. ( Facebook: Yongbei Tang )

Ms O'Connor today told ABC Hobart her comments were based on "compelling evidence of a programme of interference in domestic politics by the Chinese communist government" and were not based on Ms Tang's ethnicity.

"I believe in human diversity because diversity gives us strength and it's really unfortunate that those people who've said those really awful things haven't gone to the trouble to inform themselves of the body of evidence of Chinese government interference in domestic politics," Ms O'Connor said.

She said Chinese interference in foreign governments was something "from Canada to the USA, New Zealand, Australia, we know this is happening".

Ms O'Connor, who served as multicultural affairs minister in the former Labor-Green Tasmanian government said she was "an ex-journalist by training, I am inquisitive and I do my research".

Criticisms from fellow Greens, including Hobart council candidate Holly Ewin — who described Ms O'Connor as "somebody I admire and respect greatly ... still capable of stuffing up" — were wrong, Ms O'Connor said, suggesting such comments were "hard to bear".

"When these accusations come from people who haven't taken the time to do the research, they're difficult to bear but because I know it's not true and because I know we have a duty to defend democracy and we are committed to taking this further because democracy is very fragile."

While condemning the racist slurs being directed towards Ms Tang, Ms O'Connor said she bore no personal responsibility for the attacks over Ms Tang's Chinese heritage and laid the blame with the "nasty, right-wing elements of our country who would want to make this about race".

"Some people would like to put that personal responsibility on me, but I think it's important to remember that we have had other candidates run for election in Tasmania and they too have experienced racism," she said, naming candidate Zelinda Sherlock and Labor senator Lisa Singh.

Ms O'Connor said "there is a small and deeply unpleasant element of our community and it doesn't take much to trip them off".

'I feel disgusted, sad and ashamed'

Ms O'Connor said while Ms Tang, a resident of almost 20 years, had denied undue influence from China, she would take guidance from Australia's intelligence community which has linked two organisations Ms Tang has had previous associations as part of the "global propaganda arm of the Chinese government".

Ms Tang said the storm over her candidacy had caused her stress and she declined to be interviewed, instead issuing a statement:

"My campaign poster located in New Town was vandalised with a racist slur. I feel very disgusted, sad and ashamed.

"I believe that most Tasmanians are kind and welcoming people to our diverse country.

"So, I'd like acknowledge it's not the majority of Tasmanians but a select few who have these racist thoughts."