Businessman, Huifeng "Haha" Liu, is a Liberal Party donor and former soldier in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) who developed links with federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar.

Mr Liu is contesting the deportation order after the Federal Government rejected his application for permanent residency when security concerns were raised.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has also confirmed it is investigating Mr Liu as part of the joint ASIO-led Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, but declined to comment further.

Mr Liu told the ABC he believed ASIO had assessed him as a security risk because he was the president of a popular Australian-Chinese neighbourhood watch organisation which had an agreement to take instructions from the Chinese consulate in Melbourne.

The group, the Australian Emergency Assistance Association Incorporated (AEAAI), acts as a middleman in police incidents and legal cases involving Chinese speakers.

The association has promoted itself as a grassroots community platform to its more than 55,000 members from the Chinese diaspora in Australia on the Chinese social media platform WeChat.

It has more than 1,000 volunteers who promise to race to the scene of incidents across Australia in a matter of minutes.

According to confidential documents obtained by the ABC, the AEAAI was promised funding from the consulate and agreed to report back on criminal incidents, emergencies, accidents and "security risks" involving Chinese citizens deemed to require consular assistance.

The AEAAI was promoted publicly by Gladys Liu (no relation), who has close links to Mr Liu.

Ms Liu helped the 52-year-old develop a relationship with Victoria Police and, by Haha Liu's account, translated for him at events with MPs and business leaders.

He also watched from the public gallery in the House of Representatives as Ms Liu delivered her maiden speech in July 2019 as MP for the federal seat of Chisholm in Melbourne's east.

Mr Liu has also ingratiated himself with Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, the MP for the neighbouring seat of Deakin, who invited him to Parliament House to join him at his table for the 2017 Budget night dinner.

Geoffrey Watson SC, a former counsel assisting for the NSW Independent Commission for Corruption (ICAC), called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to crack down on what he described as foreign influences within the Liberal Party.

"This shows that a person who's now thought maybe to be a person of malign influence has got access to government at the highest level, to Mr Sukkar, a minister," he said.

Mr Watson said it was time for Mr Morrison to sack Gladys Liu in response to the revelations.

"Gladys Liu has now been tied to several instances of inappropriate influence," he said.

"I am stunned that she still holds the confidence of the Prime Minister and that there haven't been actions to separate her from the Government and even from the Liberal Party itself."

Close contact with Liberal Party figures

The allegations about the nature of Mr Liu's activities come as he mounts a Federal Court challenge against the Immigration Minister and ASIO in a bid to remain in Australia.

The court granted him a stay on his deportation order after the minister rejected his application for a significant investor permanent residency visa on character grounds in September.

"I've done nothing wrong or against Australian law," Mr Liu told the ABC at his Melbourne home. "The decision to revoke my visa was extremely unfair."

Mr Liu has lived in Australia since at least 2014.

Sources close to Mr Liu have told the ABC he has been on ASIO's radar since at least 2016, when he had one of several meetings with the agency.

The same year, he founded the AEAAI and appeared in a photograph attending the launch of a new Australian association for Chinese PLA veterans.

The visa decision and the ongoing ASIO-AFP investigation raise questions over whether the Liberal Party and some of its MPs developed a mutually beneficial relationship with Mr Liu.

Gladys Liu and Mr Sukkar gave the Liberal Party donor access to the corridors of power, in Federal Parliament and at events with Cabinet ministers and government MPs.   

In April 2017, Mr Liu and Mr Sukkar attended a private function hosted by a Liberal Party fundraising association called the Deakin 200 Club, of which the Assistant Treasurer is one of the founding members.

The Liberal Party's 2015-16 public records show that in the lead-up to the July 2016 election, Mr Liu donated $20,000 to its federal Victorian division.

In June 2016, he attended a series of pre-election fundraising events headlined by then-foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop and former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott.

The same month, he officially launched the AEAAI and flooded his social media profile on the Chinese platform Weibo with photographs and posts about his encounters with senior Liberals.

He posted photos of the politicians autographing samples of products he was exporting to China. One photo shows Mr Sukkar and Mr Liu brandishing an autographed box of "hyaluronic acid collagen face masks".

In another of the photos, former prime minister John Howard is seen autographing a box of "ultra anti-wrinkle face serum" at a function organised by the Liberal Party's fundraising arm Enterprise Victoria at the exclusive Athenaeum Club.

In his Weibo posts, Mr Liu thanked Gladys Liu for translating for him with Mr Abbott, Ms Bishop and business leaders.