![]() ![]() Over the next decade, Harding - or "Hazza", as his fans called him - began regularly presenting on Australian-Chinese affairs during a time, he said, when the relationship between the two countries "was going gangbusters". Harding became famous in Guangzhou in 2012 after releasing a song called Let Go - a break-up ballad sung in perfectly pronounced Mandarin, which topped local music charts. He would return after university and become a celebrity. Harding first went to China for a school trip at age 16. ![]() He credits his appreciation for the country to his mother, who kept a collection of Chinese antiques in their home. The city was a world apart from the rural Queensland town where he grew up and became a self-professed Sinophile. In the decade he lived in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, Harding had amassed an enormous fanbase as the only foreign presenter at the state-owned media outlet, Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT). "And I repeated that to the national security hotline when I called and they said: 'No, absolutely not, your concerns were definitely valid." From country boy to stardom He told the ABC that he was initially worried he was "stereotyping these people" and was being "overly paranoid". He rang the Australian spy agency, ASIO, and the AFP national security hotline to tell them about the "Susan" approach. When Harding heard the news from his family home in Queensland he said his "heart dropped". In circumstances strikingly similar to Harding's own, police alleged Csergo had been groomed by foreign agents claiming to be from a thinktank in Shanghai and that he'd agreed to write reports for them in return for cash payments.Īlexander Csergo is the first Australian to be charged with breaching foreign interference laws. Harding was already in touch with the ABC about his meeting with "Susan" when, on April 14, Sydney man, Alexander Csergo, was arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and charged with breaking foreign interference laws. However, that all changed with events that unfolded after his return to Australia, which put the encounter into an entirely new context. Harding returned to work and talked himself into believing the meeting wasn't sinister. He said he threw it in the bin as soon as they were out of sight. The meeting concluded with the pair giving Harding a shopping bag with Dior wallet and cologne as gifts. She assured him there were already other Australians in China who worked for them and none of them got in trouble for it. Harry said "Susan" offered to pay him up to $5,000 for each report and added the articles could remain unpublished. Harding (right) was the only foreign presenter with Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT). ![]()
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