Loyal members of the Chinese Communist Party have infiltrated Australia's Shanghai consulate after being hired through a state-owned recruitment agency, a new leak suggests. The shocking revelation came after the extraordinary leak of a database of 1.95 million registered Chinese Communist Party members. The unprecedented data release, believed to be the first of its kind, has revealed how Beijing's influence has stretched into every corner of Western governments, defence firms, banks and pharmaceutical giants. The data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents in 2016. Australia's Consulate-General Shanghai has hired Chinese Communist Party members on the recommendation of state-owned hiring agency Shanghai Foreign Agency Service Department